DOCTORS have voiced concern over Tory plans to give part-NHS funding to patients willing to pay towards a private operation, as Labour called the proposals “illegal”.

A British Medical Association spokesman said that doctors had problems with the Tory policy of handing half the cost of NHS surgery to patients prepared to pay the remainder to beat NHS queues. The Conservatives insist that the policy will save the NHS money but Labour says it will hand up to £1.2 billion to people who already opt to go private before having any impact on waiting lists.

John Reid, the Health Secretary, increased the pressure on the Tories yesterday by saying that the plans contravened the 1948 NHS Act, which said that basic treatment should be free at the point of need. Mr Reid, speaking at the publication of Labour’s “mini-manifesto” on health, said: “There has been a consensus for 60 years in this country when it comes to basic operations that your treatment should not in any way be affected by whether or not you can pay for it.

Therefore a scheme that gives you the ability to jump the queue using NHS funds is . . . illegal.”

Mr Reid wrote to Michael Howard, the Tory leader, who has been setting the pace on health using the case of Margaret Dixon’s cancelled operations, asking whether he intended to repeal the “founding principle” of the NHS Act. The Tories hit back, arguing that their scheme was not illegal because paying to go private would remain voluntary. A spokeswoman said: “The NHS will remain free at the point of use. Patients who choose to go private will be given half the NHS operation cost to take to the private sector. We do not see how saving the NHS half the cost of its operations is illegal at all.”

But Hamish Meldrum, the chairman of the BMA’s GPs’ committee, told ITN 24 News: “We in the BMA believe in a service that is free to patients at the point of use. So in that sense we do have some problems with the Tory party idea.”

Mr Reid set out plans to buy 250,000 more operations from the private sector for NHS patients, taking the proportion of private work from 5 to 8 per cent with a goal of 15 per cent. The private treatment would be free for NHS patients and used as an alternative to NHS hospitals.

The Health Secretary angrily dismissed the suggestion that 25,000 NHS patients were dying every year from preventable deep-vein thrombosis while in hospital. “There are a number of treatments for DVT that are being administered by a dedicated NHS staff who resent these sort of smears.”

The cross-party Health Select Committee said, however, that between 25,000 and 32,000 people died every year from preventable blood clots in hospital — more than breast cancer, Aids and traffic accidents combined. The total cost to the NHS is £640 million a year, yet the condition remains under-recognised.

David Hinchliffe, the chairman of the committee, said: “The guidelines that the NHS plans to introduce in May 2007 are too late, too narrow in scope and will not go far enough to prevent more unnecessary deaths. We know that there are drugs available that dramatically cut the chances of patients developing a blood clot. They are cheap, effective, easy to administer and should be used to much greater effect.”

Tony Blair said yesterday that the NHS was on its way back. The Prime Minister reiterated pledges to cut waiting times for NHS treatment to 18 weeks, including tackling hidden waits for diagnostic tests. This would be achieved by increasing capacity in the NHS, boosted by the hospital building programme, which has 130 schemes in preparation.

• A big health campaign to counter the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, would be part of Tory health policy if the party wins the next election. Michael Howard said that the country was facing an epidemic of sexual infection that demanded urgent action.

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