THE Government is to spend £40m buying up to 25,000 extra operations from the private sector in a bid to free NHS hospital beds, Health Secretary Alan Milburn announced yesterday.

The MP for Darlington believes the move will reduce bed occupancy rates in the NHS and slash lengthy trolley waits.

Mr Milburn also outlined ambitious plans to:

l Reserve some private hospitals exclusively for NHS patients;

l Negotiate longer term contracts with private health providers to get better value for money;

l Look at sending more NHS patients abroad for private treatment.

An extra £40m is also to be spent on an extra 600 accident and emergency (A&E) nursing posts.

It is part of a £100m strategy for reducing A&E waiting times and slashing the number of planned operations cancelled at the last minute.

The announcement coincided with a new report from the Audit Commission showing the waiting times in A&E departments across England are growing and set to get worse.

Sir Andrew Foster, the commission's controller, said it was "troubling" that the majority of departments were seeing fewer patients within one hour than in 1998.

And while some departments are admitting patients faster, most are taking longer.

Northern and Yorkshire was the third best performing area in the eight English regions plus Wales, with 68 per cent of A&E patients seen within an hour.

Mr Milburn said: "Waiting is the public's number one concern about the NHS.

"We are determined to tackle waiting in A&E, whether that's waiting to be seen by a doctor or waiting to be admitted on a trolley.

"£40m will be used to employ more A&E nurses in the NHS. Another £40m will buy more operations in the private sector. This investment will get more operations done, more NHS patients treated and free up more NHS beds."

Last year, £20m was earmarked to buy about 10,500 operations from the private sector.

l The Commons Health Select Committee will be in the region on Monday to investigate the impact of private sector financing on the NHS.

The committee will take evidence from North Durham Health Care NHS Trust, Consort Healthcare, the GMB union, Royal College of Nursing and Unison at the University Hospital of North Durham at 3pm.