Frank Dobson outlines how the extra cash will be spent

Mr Dobson was outlining to MPs how he intended to spend the additional �21bn for the NHS found in the Chancellor's comprehensive spending review.

He said the rise in spending represented a 4.7% increase over the next three years and would begin with a 5.7% increase for 1999. He said it would kick start Labour's modernisation of the NHS.

The new money means more staff and more patients

Mr Dobson said a large part of the extra money would go towards recruiting new staff. He said the NHS will take on up to 7,000 more doctors and 15,000 more nurses.

"I can tell the house today that over the next three years there will be an extra 6000 nurse training places," he said. "I will shortly be announcing a large increase in the number of places in medical schools. With these extra staff, NHS staff will treat an extra three million patients."

Staff retention

Both the Chancellor and Mr Dobson have made it clear that the new money will not go towards funding large pay rises in the health service.

Ann Widdecombe attacks the government's 'hype and hyperbole'

But the Health Secretary said he was seeking fairness. "Fair to allow us to recruit and retain motivated staff, affordable to allow us to make the modernisations patients require," he said.

However, Mr Dobson said the pay review bodies would now be asked to consider the service improvements, resources available, and the government's inflation target before making recommendations.

He also said:

• the NHS would provide free eye tests for pensioners from next April.
• there will be no new NHS patient charges in the lifetime of this Parliament.
• �8bn would be invested in new hospitals, clinics and GP premises. He said 1,000 GP surgeries would be improved or rebuilt over the next three years.
• England would get more than �5bn for a modernisation fund to help pay for new technological improvements including new equipment and better training.
• there would be an end to the systematic use of short-term contracts for nurses and other staff.
• social services would get �3bn to help complement the work of the NHS, representing a 3.1% increase in real terms.

He said the government's programme "was the biggest health crusade this country had ever seen since the NHS was born."

Disbelief on Tory benches

The Shadow Health Secretary Ann Widdecombe attacked the government's calculation of the figures. She said the extra sum for England was closer to �2bn than the �18bn announced by the government earlier in the week.

Ann Widdecombe: the figures are wrong

"It's a long way from Tuesday's hyper-hyperbole," she said. She also said the cash injection was below the 5.6% investment that the Conservative Party gave to the NHS between 1990 and 1993.

Ann Widdecombe quoted Lewis Carol: "Nothing is quite as it seems, and the cat's smile vanishes on closer inspection."

It was announced earlier in the day that Scotland would get �1.8bn of the extra money. The Scottish Secretary Donald Dewer said he wanted waiting lists to be cut to 75,000 or less by the end of the Parliament. To do this, hospitals are being given �300m next year.

Another �40m is going to create Scotland's first 'walk-in walk-out' treatment centre at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, and �24m is being set aside for the new Primary Care Trusts which start next year.

Wales will get just over a one billion pounds of the �21bn on offer from Mr Dobson.