Targets have proved controversial

Announcing the change on Tuesday, Health Secretary John Reid said current targets to speed up care had mostly been achieved.

He proposed a slimmed down set of new targets to aid further NHS reform, which would be driven at local level.

They are made up of 24 core standards and 10 developmental standards covering seven key areas.

These are: safety, clinical cost effectiveness, governance, patient focus, accessible and responsive care, healthcare environment and amenities, and public health.

A consultation exercise on the proposals will now take place over the next 12 weeks.

However, Mr Reid denied the changes would presage the end of the controversial star rating system for hospitals.

Defence of targets

Proposed core standards: Patients must be able to access emergency care promptly Patients must be provided with information on the care they receive Measures must be put in place to improve patient safety Health care organisations must have disease prevention and health promotion programmes in place Q&A: Performance targets NHS targets: Analysis

Launching the proposed standards at a conference of NHS Chief Executives and senior clinicians in London Mr Reid said: "NHS targets are working.

"They are driving forward the recruitment of more doctors, nurses and other NHS staff. They are ensuring that we have the biggest hospital building programme in the history of the NHS.

"And above all, targets have delivered speedier access to healthcare. Seven years ago, the maximum waiting time for treatment was over 18 months.

"By next month, it should have fallen to half this."

Mr Reid said targets had also led to more patients being seen quickly in A&E departments, and at GP surgeries.

He also claimed that they had contributed to a cut in deaths from cancer and coronary heart disease.

However, he said many targets had already been achieved, and the next phase of NHS reform - to put more power in the hands of frontline staff - would reduce the need for so many targets from the centre.

Existing targets

John Reid wants changes to the system

The government plans that current targets on access to NHS services - such as waiting times - will continue until 2008.

Existing outcome targets in areas such as cancer and coronary heart disease will run until 2010.

The new core standards will set the level of quality of care which every patient should expect, wherever they are treated in the NHS.

They will be backed up by 'developmental' standards which set out what the NHS should aspire to deliver for patients.

For example, educating patients in order to manage their own long-term conditions, or devising action plans to tackle health inequalities between different communities.

The current system of targets has attracted much criticism on the grounds that it forces doctors to concentrate on meeting targets, rather than on treating patients according to need.

Critics say this means that more straightforward cases have been prioritised in order to meet waiting list targets, at the expense of more complex cases.

Mr James Johnson, British Medical Association chairman, welcomed the review of the current system.

However, he said: "We hope the new standards will not lead to another set of hoops for managers to jump through.

"Any new performance measures must be robust, transparent and meaningful.

"Patients deserve better information about their hopsitals, and both doctors and managers would benefit from having relevant data to help improve patient care."

Paul Burstow, for the Liberal Democrats, accused the government of a U-turn by reducing the number of targets.

He said: "We have campaigned for years for these tick box targets to be scrapped, and the government has finally started to listen."

Tim Yeo, Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Education said Dr Reid was on "shaky ground".

"On the day that he promised to slash performance targets, which star ratings are measured against, he stood by his assertion that the star ratings system will not be abolished.

"Dr Reid has also gone to great lengths to defend the targets that the Department of Health has set in the past.

"If he really believed this, why has he promised a bonfire of these targets by 2005-6?"