In a major speech to mark the 50th anniversary of the National Health Service, he urged doctors and nurses to embrace the information superhighway and telemedicine.

He said: "The challenge for the NHS is to harness the information revolution and use it to benefit patients."

He added: "The day is not far off when the Internet and interactive television will give us the convenience of home visits that can be done through technology."

The BBC's health correspondent Richard Hannaford: Mr Blair is impressed by telemedicine

Extra money will be made available for the schemes through a "modernisation fund."

"I want a health service with the confidence that its funding will allow it to plan ahead, to be creative, to develop services, in the knowledge they will be there not just today but in the years ahead," Mr Blair said to large applause.

The exact amount is not known, but reports suggest it could be between �8bn and �10bn. The precise figure will be contained in Chancellor Gordon Brown's spending review, due to be announced in two weeks time.

Calling for a "crusade for excellence" Mr Blair also emphasised his belief that the NHS must be run with the same kind of performance indicators, targets and monitoring that schools are becoming accustomed to.

He called for quicker, more responsive services and shorter waiting-lists and challenged the whole medical profession to ensure uniformly high standards.

He also announced the establishment of beacons of excellence, which would recieve extra funding.

Difficult decisions needed

Blair: vision for the future

At a Downing Street reception on Wednesday for NHS staff, the prime minister warned of hard decisions ahead.

But he promised that the government would do all it could to carry the staff with them in delivering change.

"There are tremendous things we can do for the health service over the next few years if we deploy the imagination to achieve it," he said.

"We will try to fashion and shape the changes we are making in partnership with the people in the National Health Service.

"It will require sometimes very difficult decisions to be taken but I think it is easier to take those decisions if we are trying to tell people why they are necessary."