Patients were yesterday promised a more personalised NHS with shorter waits, greater choice and a bigger role for the private sector in ambitious plans unveiled by the Government.

Health Secretary John Reid, presenting the NHS Improvement Plan to MPs in the Commons, outlined a raft of new targets on the future of the National Health Service in England.

The document said that private health providers would increase their involvement, providing up to 15 per cent of operations paid for by the NHS by 2008.

This could mean independent sector hospitals and clinics carrying out about a million operations a year - an increase from about 250,000 by the end of next year - plus perhaps thousands of other diagnostic procedures.

The Department of Health is also expected to announce soon a contract to provide more MRI scans in the NHS, with a private sector provider supplying a mobile cancer screening service to tackle log-jams.

Dr Reid revealed a new way of measuring waiting times, pledging to tackle "hidden waits" by setting targets from the referral from GP to the operating theatre door.

At present, waiting times are measured from final diagnosis to treatment, which represents only a third of the total patient journey.

Dr Reid told MPs that the maximum wait was now nine months, and by next year would be six months.

"That is in itself a staggering reduction from the long waits we inherited," he said.

"But it still applies to only a portion of the total journey from the GP to the operating theatre.

"Under this new programme our aim is to limit the whole patient journey - from GP referral through outpatients and diagnostic tests and finally to treatment."

Dr Reid said that by 2008 the maximum waiting time from GP to operating theatre would be 18 weeks, with an average wait of nine or ten weeks.

He also pledged to extend the patient's choice of hospital from four or five by the end of next year to every health provider in the country, including private sector treatment centres and foundation trusts.

This would be made possible by the roll-out of the National IT Programme and electronic booking.

The document also raises the possibility that failing hospitals could be taken over by outside groups to bring performances up to scratch.

Plans unveiled by the Conservative Party yesterday also promised to give all patients a choice of hospitals around the country, as well as paying half the cost of treatment in private hospitals when it exceeded the NHS tariff.

In a swipe at the Tory plans, Dr Reid told MPs: "As the Chancellor made clear in his 2002 Budget, we are committed to sustained record investment in the NHS.

"Total investment will rise year-on-year to over £90.2bn by 2007-08, averaging 7.3 per cent in real terms growth over the five-year period.

"None of it will be diverted as a subsidy for the relatively well-off few."

As well as focusing on hospitals, the plan also pledges to improve treatment of the 17.5 million patients with chronic conditions, such as asthma and arthritis, in order to care for them in the community.

Dr Reid said the plan would provide 3,000 community matrons to support these patients, and would roll out the Expert Patients Programme across the country.

The scheme lets patients with chronic conditions support each other and manage their care independently.

Dr Reid said the White Paper on public health, to be published in the autumn, would set out in more detail plans to tackle major causes of ill-health, including smoking, obesity and sexually transmitted diseases.

Yesterday's plans set targets to cut death rates from coronary heart disease and strokes in those under 75 by at least 40 per cent by 2010 compared with 1997.

Ministers aim to cut death rates from cancer in those under 75 by 20 per cent by 2010, and suicides also by 20 per cent. They also pledged significant reductions in the MRSA superbug by 2010.

The document pledged that there would be "continuing increases in frontline NHS staff", although it did not give specific figures.