CANCER patients who face long waits in the NHS will be given cash to go private in a radical shift of Government policy.

Gordon Brown will unveil a significant expansion of private- sector involvement in health provision as part of his relaunch this week.

The move is likely to be portrayed as a climbdown by opposition parties, because the Prime Minister previously fought against less drastic Blairite reforms to public services.

The idea bears similarities to the “Patient’s Passport”

policy dropped by the Tories after the last General Election.

Mr Brown is to publish his Building Britain’s Future document today as he seeks to regain the initiative after dire polls and leadership speculation.

He will promise to strip away top-down targets in favour of “entitlements” for people using services.

For the first time, if a primary care trust (PCT) cannot give cancer patients a specialist appointment within two weeks of referral from a GP, it will have to provide equivalent funding for a private consultation.

In practice, the measure is expected to affect only a few hundred patients, because nearly all NHS trusts in England hit the deadline.

But the principle of involving the private sector in acute treatment is regarded as a major change of approach.

Presently, only elective surgery such as hip replacements and cataract surgery is provided through private treatment.

The two-week target was first introduced for suspected breast cancer cases in 1999, and extended to all cancers in 2000. However, while prospects have improved, research has indicated that fiveyear survival rates in the UK are still below the European average.

Meanwhile, a YouGov poll for The People newspaper highlighted the challenge facing Mr Brown, putting the Tories on 40 per cent, Labour on 24 per cent and the Lib Dems on 17 per cent.

Work and Pensions Secretary Yvette Cooper said targets had helped to drive improvements in a range of public services, but the new strategy was about improving accountability.

■ More people are diagnosed with cancer caused by alcohol each year than can fit in Wimbledon’s Centre Court, a scientist claims.

More than 20,000 people a year are diagnosed with a cancer that could have been prevented if they had not drunk any alcohol at all, said Professor Martin Wiseman, medical and scientific advisor for World Cancer Research Fund.

This is about 5,000 more than the capacity of Centre Court, which seats 15,000 people, he said.