Blair calls for NHS change

Tony Blair is set to demand that the country's doctors have to accept reform if the NHS is to be substantially improved.

Tony Blair is set to demand that the country's doctors have to accept reform if the NHS is to be substantially improved.

In a speech today the Prime Minister will tell the Royal College of Surgeons that senior doctors and consultants will be required to match their procedures with the best practice in the NHS.

He is also expected to announce that the Government will ban newly qualified NHS consultants from engaging in private work.

The Government's 10-year National Plan for the NHS was greeted with suspicion by some senior doctors on its unveiling in July this year.

Mr Blair will demand modernisation in working practices if the proposed changes are to work, including getting doctors to accept new links between pay and performance.