Health groups and unions reacted with caution and some scepticism after the Health Secretary, Mr Frank Dobson, yesterday promised that the National Health Service would recruit up to 7,000 more doctors and 15,000 more nurses before the next general election.
Giving some idea of how the government would spend £21 billion extra for the health service across Britain over the next three years, the Minister also announced an increase of 6,000 nurse training places and foreshadowed a "large" increase in places in medical schools.
As a further consequence of the government's comprehensive spending review, Mr Dobson said there would be "no new NHS patient charges in the lifetime of this parliament".
The minister's statement to the Commons contained less detail than had been anticipated. Opposition parties continued to question the real worth of the cash increase, which Mr Dobson said would help fund "the biggest health crusade the country has seen since the NHS was born 50 years ago".
Ms Ann Widdecombe, the Conservatives' shadow health secretary, said the government's three-year programme for England was in real terms worth £2.1 billion more than spending trends under the last government.
Taking account of the costs of other policies, and of dealing with the millennium computer bug, the net gain came down to £395 million. In that light, the claimed £18 billion boost for England had "the dubious aroma of a dodgy accounting scam".
Mr Dobson told MPs that more than 1,000 surgeries would be improved or rebuilt over the next three years. Thirty new hospitals were already planned and more would follow.
The £5 billion plus modernisation fund, to be financed wholly by the cash increase, would pay not only for computer technology, but also health promotion, staff training and "modern and effective mental health services".
On charges, the Minister said the government had spent a year carefully analysing the arguments for asking patients to pay to see a GP, to go to out-patients or to stay in hospital.
"We utterly reject these ideas. We have rejected them because they wouldn't work and they would harm the worst-off." Health groups welcomed this declaration - which meant there would be no new charges for travel vaccinations, a health department spokeswoman later con firmed - but there were doubts about the promised recruitment of doctors and nurses.
The NHS is already committed to increasing student nurse intake by 12.5 per cent this year and again next year, an overall rise of some 4,000 training places. It was unclear whether the promised 6,000 extra places added to this.
Ms Christine Hancock, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said there were 8,000 nursing vacancies. "It's good news for patients that an extra 15,000 nurses are to be recruited to the health service, but my first question is where are these nurses going to come from if we don't tackle pay?"
Doctors' leaders also voiced anxiety. Prof George Alberti, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said that with medical training taking up to six years, "we will need to recruit many doctors until the most welcome increase in student numbers bears fruit".
Dr Ian Bogle, chairman of the British Medical Association, said the prospect of 7,000 extra doctors was promising. "But we will need to pin the government down on where these doctors are coming from, whether these will be the senior posts we need and how they plan to entice these doctors back into the NHS."