Prime Minister Tony Blair has pledged to inject more cash into the crisis-hit NHS but says it will take time to put things right.

Appearing on Breakfast with Frost on BBC 1, Mr Blair tried to answer a week of sustained attacks on the government's handling of the NHS.

It has come under fire from politicians, health professionals and the public after the service was put under severe strain by an outbreak of winter flu.

Thousands of people have had their operations cancelled as hospitals scrapped routine surgery to cope with a flood of emergency admissions.

Mr Blair insisted that pressing on with NHS modernisation and investing more money - without rises in income tax - was the way to rebuild the service.

He said his government would match the share of national wealth spent by other European countries on health at the end of five years.

"It's undoubtedly true that we're getting extra resources into the health service - just look at the overall percentage increases.

"If we carry on for the next lot of spending rounds, getting that extra money in, we will make a substantial difference.

"We will bring it up to the European Union average in time," he pledged.

The prime minister said the measures required to improve the NHS would take years to have an effect.

He admitted:"In the short term we have got to get more intensive care beds and to bring more nurses back into the national health service.

"I'm not going to sit here and say there aren't problems in the NHS because there are and we've got to put them right."

Tory leader William Hague said the crisis in the health service amounted to a stark and total failure of the government's policies.

Appearing on the BBC'1s On the Record he accused Labour of mismanagement and betraying its basic promises to cut hospital waiting lists.

However Mr Blair did signal above inflation pay rises for all nurses- with the biggest increases for those at the top of their profession.

He said 60,000 Grade E nurses would receive an annual pay rise of more than �1,000 when the health pay awards are announced on Monday.

Mr Blair said curing the NHS's ills was not just a question of resources - the structure of the health service also needed reforming.

He said he had inherited a very difficult situation from the last Conservative government.

"There is no easy way out of rebuilding the health service other than more money into it, plus the change and reform and modernisation."

However he insisted that private health insurance was not the answer to the NHS's problems and that many people would be unable to afford it.

"The idea that private health care is going to help us when two thirds of the patients in hospital beds are over 65 - it's an illusion," he said.

Tax cut remains

Fertility expert and Labour peer Lord Winston caused government anguish last week when he criticised Labour's handling of the health service.

An opinion poll in Sunday's Observer suggested 76% of people want ministers to ditch this April's 1p income tax cut and re-direct the savings into health.

Mr Blair ruled out the move, but acknowledged action was needed on beds and nurses, while asking people to keep the problems in perspective.

He expressed his concern about the case of Mavis Skeet, whose operation for throat cancer was cancelled four times in five weeks because of bed shortages.

Doctors at Leeds General Infirmary now say the 73-year-old's condition is inoperable.

Answering her daughter Jane's plea for more NHS resources, the Prime Minister said: "I accept responsibility to make sure that the situation that occurred in respect of her mother does not recur."

Mike Stone, director of the Patients Association, welcomed Mr Blair's promise to inject more cash into the NHS.

He said: "We have been saying for a while that there should be more money put in and it has got to be managed properly.

"But one of the things which concerned us was that he kept asking for more time. There are a lot of patients who are waiting for life-saving operations and they have not got time."