HEALTH experts in the region have given the Dr Reid's five-year plan a guarded welcome, but there is debate on whether it is achievable.

Carole Langrick, director of performance for County Durham and Tees Valley Strategic Health Authority, was upbeat about the target of a maximum waiting time of 18 weeks by 2008.

"It is certainly very ambitious, but this is not happening in isolation," she said. "This actually builds on and adds to what is already happening in terms of targets."

With existing maximum waiting times for inpatients down to nine months - and due to go down to three months within two years - Mrs Langrick said the system was already heading in the right direction.

"In some specialities you could find yourself having treatment within 18 weeks already. But in other areas, such as orthopaedics, urology and plastic surgery, there is a shortage of consultants," she said.

Mrs Langrick said great inroads had already been made in treating the backlog of patients in many specialities and this had to continue if the new target was to be achievable.

Increasing capacity would largely be by better managedment of existing NHS resources and using the private sector, she said.

Middlesbrough GP Dr John Canning said the continuing manpower shortage within the NHS made Dr Reid's targets very daunting.

"We are still not seeing sufficient GPs coming through the system and we simply do not have the time to advise patients on choosing hospitals, within the average eight-minute consultation."

Professor David Hunter, an expert on health service management at Durham University, expressed concern that the "relentless pressure" on NHS staff was not sustainable.

"As for choice, I worry whether people really want it. It could be argued that the more choice you are given the more stressful it becomes."