TONY Blair pledged yesterday to close the health gap with the rest of Europe through a massive injection of cash into the NHS over the next few years.

The Prime Minister promised to bring health spending up to European levels after admitting there were problems in the NHS.

The move comes after a week of damaging publicity over hospitals being forced to cancel operations as beds were given to flu victims.

And it follows The Northern Echo's Chance to Live campaign, which has sparked a national debate with its aim to establish a three-month waiting limit for heart surgery, bringing Britain into line with other European countries.

But patients who are still waiting for treatment have condemned Mr Blair for not taking action sooner.

The Prime Minister, in a TV interview with Sir David Frost yesterday, said: "I'm not going to sit here and say there aren't problems in the NHS because there are and we have got to put them right.

"Short term, we have got to get more intensive care beds and we have got to bring more nurses back into the health service." He said the Government would not take risks with the economy, and ruled out scrapping plans to cut income tax by a penny in April. But he pledged to bring spending on health up to the European average "in time".

Britain spends 6.7 per cent of its national income on health, compared to about ten per cent in both Germany and France. The European average is eight per cent.

But Robert Smith, whose three-year-old daughter Hannah died last week after much-delayed heart surgery, condemned the Government for taking almost three years to get round to tackling the NHS crisis.

Mr Smith, from Aldbrough St John, near Richmond, North Yorkshire, said: "The Government is all talk and no action. It's no use talking about it, let's see something being done. Cancer doesn't wait, heart operations don't wait. When it comes to your health it should be the number one priority for the country." Multiple sclerosis sufferer Pauline Taylor, who has been unable to get the drug Beta Interferon due to NHS rationing, accused the Government of hiding behind the flu epidemic to excuse problems in the health service.

Mrs Taylor, 47, a former nurse consultant from Durham, said: "People have been patient long enough and it's time for action. "I'm now ashamed to say I worked for the NHS. I never thought it would get to that point." Ken Smith, a 75-year-old grandfather from Filey, North Yorkshire, who has been told he must wait 12 months for a triple heart bypass operation, said people were running out of patience.

Mr Smith, who has spurned the chance to go private for fear of delaying someone else's operation, said: "Tony Blair is just making excuses and that doesn't impress me at all. They say it will take years to put it right but a lot of people haven't got years - they haven't got 12 months." Val Stangoe, chief officer of Northallerton and District Community Health Council, said it recognised it would take time to alleviate the NHS's problems.

She said: "It is excellent the Government is going to be putting in more money, but they need to be a little bit more honest about where it is going." A telephone poll conducted by The Northern Echo found that 90.6 per cent of readers who took part want the Government to scrap plans for a penny cut in income tax in April.

They would rather the £5bn cost of the reduction was spent on improving the NHS. Only 9.3 per cent agreed with the tax cut.

A similar survey by The Observer yesterday found that three out of four voters would rather the tax cut went to the NHS.