Patients 'right' to private care

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Patients in England will be guaranteed NHS treatment within 18 weeks, with the legal right to private care paid for by the state if that deadline is missed.

The government has already announced plans to give "entitlements" to care within a certain time, but it is now set to enshrine those rights in law.

BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said Labour wanted to show it was the party to be trusted on healthcare.

But the Tories say it is an attempt to use the NHS as a political football.

In March, the government announced it had achieved its target of guaranteeing that 90% of in-patients and 95% of out-patients were seen within 18 weeks.

Figures released then showed the average wait was 8.6 weeks.

At last month's Labour party conference, Gordon Brown announced a new pledge that every patient in England would get the right to see a cancer specialist within two weeks of presenting to their GP.

But now ministers are set to go even further with a plan to rush through legislation before the general election next year making these entitlements law.

This would give a private option to any patient forced to wait longer than the 18 or two-week deadline.

Political strategy

Government sources have told the BBC that while this will give greater incentive to those within the NHS to deliver on their responsibilities, it is also part of a wider political strategy

Our correspondent said ministers were concerned that the Conservatives were increasingly more trusted on the NHS, so in the run up to the election they hoped to put pressure on Tory leader David Cameron by forcing him to announce whether or not he would repeal the new laws if he took office.

Former Health Secretary John Reid told the Times newspaper he was "delighted" with the move.

"Now that we have hugely reduced the waiting lists and have dramatically cut the waiting times, this is the next logical step in patient power."

The new laws are expected to be unveiled in next month's Queen's Speech.