LONDON, Feb. 20 (UPI) -- By the end of 2008 U.K. patients will not have to wait more than 18 weeks to receive treatment, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Monday.
In addition, the average target wait time will be reduced to between seven and eight weeks, Blair told an audience at King's College Hospital in London.
The reduced wait periods, he said, will represent a "real transformation within the health service."
Shoring up the National Health Service, the government-financed and operated health system in Britain, has long been a platform plank for Blair's Labor Party. As recently as 10 years ago some patients had to wait 18 months for treatment after they were referred by their doctor.
The party's critics from the right and left have charged that the government has not done enough to bolster the health service during Blair's tenure.
