Up to 15 per cent of all NHS operations will in future be carried out by the private sector, thanks to massive extra funding announced today by Patricia Hewitt, the new Health Secretary.

Ms Hewitt said that £3 billion will be spent over the next five years on providing some 1.7 million operations by independent providers to NHS patients.

The Government intends that the operations, expected to cover elective surgery such as hip and knee replacements, will help the NHS in England meet its target waiting time of a maximum of 18 weeks from a patient’s GP referral to the operating table, within three years.

Ms Hewitt denied that the plan amounted to dismantling of the NHS by stealth. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, she said: "Of course we are not dismantling the NHS. We are reforming and we will transform the NHS so that it is far better for patients. It will be different, and it will be better."

She said it would be "completely crazy" to close existing health institutions and replace them with private providers. The Government was simply finding new and better methods of healthcare, she said.

"As we extend more choice to patients … that will keep improving the standards and quality of performance right across the system," Ms Hewitt said.

There would be no "arbitrary limits" on the number of operations done by the private sector, she said, but she expected the figure could be as high as 15 per cent.

The new approach would see an end to the expensive practice of NHS trusts buying operations at private hospitals to treat patients who had been waiting for months.

Ms Hewitt said the Government would also be talking with the British Medical Association about the role that independent providers could play in providing training for students and junior doctors.

James Johnson, chairman of the British Medical Association, said the Government was exposing the NHS to greater competition with the private sector, but had so far failed to explain satisfactorily what would happen to hospitals that could not compete.

"We remain concerned that independent sector treatment centres will deal with the most straightforward cases while the NHS is left to treat patients with more complex problems.

"If there is to be competition, it must take place on a level playing field. Moreover, junior doctors need to be able to carry out simple procedures to develop their skills," he added.

Andrew Lansley, the Shadow Health Secretary, said that standards in the health service would suffer if an increasing number of operations were performed by the private sector. "If you deprive NHS hospitals of routine work, how can they sustain the emergency work?" he told Today.

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