THOUSANDS of patients who have had to wait six months for surgery will soon be offered a choice of treatment at an NHS hospital, in a private clinic or even abroad, the Government announced yesterday.

Health Secretary Alan Milburn said the radical scheme will first benefit patients waiting "too long" for life-saving heart surgery who will be given an "explicit" choice over where they are treated.

It means the Government is getting closer to fulfilling The Northern Echo's target of reducing the maximum wait for heart surgery to three months.

Mr Milburn's crusade against heart disease was inspired by this newspaper's A Chance To Live campaign, which was launched after the death of Darlington photographer Ian Weir - a friend of Mr Milburn - who was waiting for a bypass operation.

From July next year, every patient in England who has waited for a heart operation for six months will be able to choose which hospital they are treated in, whether public or private, at home or abroad. Treatment will remain free.

The scheme will then be rolled out to reduce the backlog of patients waiting for other operations. By 2005, all patients will be able to choose where their treatment is carried out.

Mr Milburn also announced details of how next year's £53.4bn NHS budget will be distributed among health authorities.

This represents an average 9.9 per cent increase in funds, the biggest average rise for a decade. Health authorities in the Northern and Yorkshire region are to receive an extra £480.3m. In real terms, County Durham will receive an extra £35m, Tees an extra £32m and North Yorkshire an extra £36m.

Announcing the plans in the Commons, he said: "We are publishing proposals that will for the first time give patients an explicit choice over where they are treated in the NHS.

"We will start with patients who have been waiting longest for treatment and those with the most serious conditions."

Dr George Rae, North-East spokesman for the British Medical Association, said the scheme was all right in the short term but could divert resources away from the NHS.

"There should be some additional money which is ring-fenced to pay for patients treated abroad," he said.

Heart patient Edna Irwin, 69, from Darlington, said she would have jumped at the chance of going abroad to have the double heart bypass operation she needs.

Mrs Irwin, who is due to have her operation in January after waiting nearly two years, said: "I am sure a lot of people would go abroad. I certainly would."