The government's national plan will herald the most comprehensive overhaul of the NHS since it was formed in 1948.

Prime Minister Tony Blair will announce this week fundamental changes designed to create a modern health service over the next 10 years.

Proposals are likely to include:

• A pledge that NHS patients whose operations are cancelled for non-medical reasons will be guaranteed surgery within 28 days, possibly at a private hospital
• A promise to slash waiting times. At present no patient is supposed to wait more than 18 months for sugery. Ministers want to cut this to nine months by 2004-2005.
• Plans for a huge increase in the numbers of doctors and nurses in the NHS
• Free nursing care for elderly people living in nursing and residential homes
• A Patient Advocacy and Liaison Service in each NHS hospital to handle complaints and hold spot checks to ensure hygiene standards are satisfactory

The plan was drawn up by five action groups headed by health ministers and comprising 100 health professionals.

They were asked to draw up firm proposals for fundamentally reforming the health service and deciding how the extra government cash - announced in this year's budget - should be spent.

In March, Chancellor Gordon Brown announced the single-biggest injection of money into the NHS.

He pledged to increase health spending by more than a third, from �50bn to �69bn, over the next five years.

The announcement of extra cash followed a devastating winter crisis in the NHS and a subsequent pledge from Prime Minister Tony Blair to bring UK health spending up to the European average.

Modernise

But in return, the government has said it wants the health service and its employees to modernise.

This is what the national plan aims to achieve. It is expected to detail major changes to the way healthcare is delivered and to the way doctors and nurses work.

Some of the key changes will centre around making the NHS more patient-friendly.

This is expected to include proposals for GPs to offer longer opening hours, for waiting times to be cut and for services to be tailored to the needs of patients rather than the health service.

In return, doctors and other NHS staff will be rewarded with, in some cases, extra pay and better career opportunities.

The plan is also expected to re-focus the NHS, so that for the first time it is tackling the causes of ill-health rather than just concentrating on treating illnesses.

Another important element will be proposals to improve standards of care and to eliminate some of the existing variations.

This is likely to take the form of a new grading system for hospitals and rewards for those that achieve high standards and sanctions, including the threat of closure, for those that do not.

Reports have suggested that the government may also propose replacing the General Medical Council, which regulates doctors, with an independent watchdog.

It is understood that this body would cover a number of medical professionals, including doctors and nurses.

The plan is also expected to include proposals for ensuring the NHS and social services work more closely together.

Ministers are likely to announce changes to the care of elderly people, by pledging to meet the costs of their medical care but rejecting calls to pay for personal care.

The government has pinned its hopes on remedying the NHS's problems.

Ministers hope the national plan will provide it with solutions to those problems.