Health Secretary Alan Milburn is to give patients facing long waits for operations the choice of alternative hospitals.

An extra 100,000 patients are set to benefit from the NHS Patient Choice scheme to cover more parts of the country and more surgical specialities.

At present, heart patients who have been waiting six months or more, and cataract patients in London, can choose to go to a different hospital for their operation.

Yesterday Mr Milburn, MP for Darlington, told a conference of NHS chief executives in London that following the success of pilot schemes already running, the scheme would be expanded over the next three years.

He said the reforms would "put patients in the driving seat - at the heart of the Health Service". "Patients will be able to choose hospitals rather than hospitals choosing patients. For too long, for too many, the choice has been to pay or wait."

Sites chosen included those where waiting times were longest and where electronic booking of hospital appointments was being tested.

From summer next year, all patients waiting six months for any form of elective surgery would be able to choose to go for treatment instead to at least one alternative hospital and normally four public or private hospitals or diagnostic and treatment centres.

By December 2005, all patients would be offered an alternative choice of hospital, which could include private ones at the point of GP referral.