Hospital and GP trusts will be rewarded for improving access to NHS services from a new �100m fund, the government has announced.

Money will be made available to those who reduce waiting times for A&E, planned operations and outpatient clinics.

It could be spent on a range of improvements such as buying neonatal incubators or ultrasound scanners, or refurbishing wards.

The cash comes from the general allocation pot for the next three years.

Strategic Health Authorities will decide which trusts qualify for extra payments.

Equipment

But doctors within the qualifying trusts will have a say on how at least half the money is spent.

This new fund will reward high performing NHS organisations Health Secretary Alan Milburn

Health Secretary Alan Milburn said: "This new fund will reward high performing NHS organisations.

"Staff and patients will benefit from improvements in facilities and buildings. It will provide a positive incentive to get waiting times for treatment down."

This is the first time NHS capital allocations have been announced for a three, rather than a one-year period.

It is also the first time day to day operational capital has been allocated directly to NHS trusts and primary care trusts.

A spokesman for the British Medical Association told BBC News Online: "The types of project that the money might be spent on, such as essential equipment, are items that all parts of the NHS would welcome and not just those who demonstrate an improvement in their (narrowly defined) performance.

"The fund should also be available to those trusts which have improved access by offering additional services to their local patients rather than simply cutting waiting times."

Cutting 'cumbersome' red tape

The government has also announced two taskforces which will oversee NHS reforms aimed at cutting bureaucracy in GP and hospital services.

They will monitor progress and give advise on the implementation of reforms.

The GP taskforce will include representatives from the British Medical Association, the Doctor Patient Partnership, the Patients Association and the Royal College of GPs.

The hospitals taskforce includes organisations such as the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of Surgeons, the NHS Confederation and Unison.

The government has already cut the amount of guidance the Department of Health sends out, and introduced a three year planning framework for the NHS.

Health minister Lord Hunt said: "We need to ensure that investment and reforms deliver the best health service for patients and the public," he said.

"We must build on the work already done to remove unnecessary and cumbersome red tape for front line workers - whether in the GPs surgery, casualty department, hospital ward or operating theatre."

He said: "We will be taking targeted action to reduce red tape and also changing the culture of the Department of Health so that the less bureaucratic style will become normal practice."

Dr Mike Dixon, of the NHS Alliance, which represents primary Care groups, said: "The GP taskforce presents us with a unique opportunity to cut a swathe through bureaucracy.

"That will mean GPs getting on with their work with patients."