A radical plan to ensure no NHS patient waits more than three months for an operation is being considered by the Government, Health Secretary Alan Milburn said yesterday.

The plan would revolutionise the way the health service works and effectively abolish hospital waiting lists.

Opposition parties and doctors gave the proposal a guarded welcome but questioned how the idea would work in practice.

The proposal has been put forward by the NHS Confederation, which represents health authorities, and is being "seriously considered" by ministers.

It could feature in the new national plan which will propose major changes to the health service when it is published this summer.

Under the proposals, emergency surgery would be separated from routine, elective surgery.

Waiting lists are often exacerbated by the fact emergency surgery always takes precedence and routine operations can be scrapped at the last minute for an urgent surgical case.

The NHS Confederation has mooted the idea of 24-hour, seven-day-a-week "elective surgery" centres dedicated to common operations such as hip replacements or cataract work.

They would be staffed by new types of health professionals, such as nurse anaesthetists.

The plan could bring waiting times down to six months at first and then to a maximum of three months.

Although the Government has achieved its manifesto pledge of reducing waiting lists by 100,000 from the figure inherited from the Tories, the initiative has cost millions of pounds and pushed doctors and the NHS to the limit.

The new plan would be a revolution in the way the health service treats patients and could permanently lower hospital queues.

Latest figures show 1,037,000 people are waiting more than three months for treatment on the NHS in England. Almost three quarters of people (71 per cent) are treated within three months and 14 per cent wait between three and six months.

Three months is regarded by the medical profession as the equivalent of no waiting list, as it is inadvisable on clinical grounds to aim for anything less in non-emergency cases.

Mr Milburn said: "We will look at the idea very, very carefully indeed. In this day and age we have got to offer people shorter waiting times, based on clinical need. All too often, people are waiting far too long for treatment."

Shadow health secretary Dr Liam Fox said: "Any measure to reduce waiting times is welcome but we need to judge the Government on its record, not its rhetoric. Outpatient lists have gone up by two thirds since Labour came to power."

l The patient's view - Page 3