UK government to buy in more private health care

Britain's new health secretary intends to spend three billion pounds over five years buying 1.7 million operations from the private sector.

"We are bringing in the independent sector to provide extra capacity, because we must have that to bring the waiting lists down, but also to bring innovation," Patricia Hewitt told BBC radio.

The move to use more private clinics and hospitals will not sit easily with many of Ms Hewitt's own Labour party, which created the free-to-all National Health Service (NHS) in 1948.

Ms Hewitt said about five per cent of NHS operations were currently conducted in the private sector and that John Reid, her predecessor as Health Secretary, envisaged 10-15 per cent of operations moving out of the NHS.

Britons are very protective about the health service which employs 1.3 million workers and spends over £76 billion a year.

Ms Hewitt said the private operations would cost more, in some cases, than those carried out in state-run hospitals.

"We are paying a premium in some cases to these new independent sector providers."

But she said she thought any extra cost was "well worth paying" if it meant patients got treatment faster.

She rejected allegations she was dismantling the NHS, insisting "it will be different and it will be better".