Delivery man: Millburn

Health secretary Alan Milburn has promised to abolish waiting lists in his first key speech following the general election.

Milburn told the British Association of Medical Managers Conference in Liverpool on Wednesday that the government's top priority for the NHS was delivering "real change for patients".

He told delegates that the government and the NHS would now move on to cut waiting times for treatment, while the health service throughout the country will conduct local modernisation reviews

Reiterating much of what had been set out in Labour's election manifesto, Milburn said that key aims were the decentralisation of NHS budgets, increasing frontline investment and tackling heart disease.

Milburn echoed the words of new home secretary David Blunkett to hammer home the "delivery" message.

"We know what needs to be done and we have the plans to make it happen. Our priority for this parliament is simple. It is not an avalanche of new initiatives, it is delivery - to deliver the NHS plan," he said.

Milburn sought to ally the fears of staff over plans to bring in the private sector saying it did not amount to a sell-out.

"Reform in the NHS is not about abandoning the principles of the NHS. It is not about privatising NHS services. It is not about sidelining NHS staff. Above all else it is about empowering frontline NHS services and liberating the talents of frontline NHS staff," he said.

Liberal Democrat shadow health spokesman, Dr Evan Harris, claimed Milburn's speech amounted to a recognition that the government had been too cautious in the last parliament."This announcement comes four years too late for patients who have had to take second place to statistics. It is another example of Labour sticking to a damaging Conservative policy...Waiting lists have meant that people with more complicated conditions have been pushed to the sidelines. In some cases, political interference can be said to have cost lives," Harris said.

Harris called for Milburn to take more radical action. "Scrapping waiting list targets comes too late to repair the morale of doctors and nurses who were distracted from treating patients. While the health secretary is at it, he should scrap all the other artificial initiatives, targets and political prioritisations which interfere with clinical judgement," he said.