Should NHS patients be treated in private hospitals? And should they be sent abroad for treatment?

These are some of the thorny issues facing the health service today - and they'll top the agenda at this year's British Medical Association conference in Harrogate.

Breakfast spoke to one patient, John McCaul, who spent two years on an NHS waiting list before being one of the pioneer group of patients to be treated in France earlier this year.

click here to watch John McCaul's interview in full

A lack of training places is delaying doctors becoming GPs - and that is not the only NHS staffing problem, the British Medical Association has said ahead of its annual conference.

Recruitment and retention of NHS staff has become a major problem for the government in recent months.

It was reported on Sunday that ministers' plans to boost the NHS with overseas staff have run into trouble, sparking complaints from 19 foreign governments.

The BMA - the doctors' trade union - found that among 500 medical graduates who qualified in 1995, many were having to alter their career plans because of the shortage of training places.

While waiting for a training place some doctors were going into research posts or studying for a further degree, the report said.

Others were working as locums or taking up posts which had no training content.

Assisted suicide

The study is one of a number of topics being raised during the BMA's annual conference, attended by 500 delegates, in Harrogate this week.

Other subjects up for discussion include vaccines for NHS staff in the case of germ warfare; CCTV in surgeries; the MMR vaccine and assisted suicide.

On Sunday the BMA will publish the findings of a MORI poll which asked patients what they thought about government proposals to treat more people overseas or in private hospitals.

The proposals are among Health Secretary Alan Milburn's plans to cut waiting times in the NHS.

Other plans, published this week, include recruiting overseas staff for staff private sector facilities that treat NHS patients.

Refugee doctors

But the Mail on Sunday reported that that idea could already be in trouble, with countries both in and out of the EU complaining about the UK's aggressive recruitment of staff during the last year.

The Department of Health said it did not recruit from developing countries with a shortage of medical staff.

The BMA has said it is ironic that despite the NHS staff shortages, refugee doctors face huge hurdles to using their skills in the UK.

Most refugee doctors, no matter how qualified, have to begin their training all over again when they come to Britain - a process which can take up to 10 years.

The BMA has said refugee doctors are a valuable resource and should be integrated into the NHS.

This will be another subject up for discussion at the conference.