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Gordon Brown has confirmed that every NHS hospital in England will become a foundation trust by 2015.Launching the party's election manifesto at a Birmingham hospital, he re-affirmed pledges to give patients legally-binding rights on treatment and waiting times.
More GP surgeries will be open from 8am to 8pm and there will be extra health services on the high street.
The current manifesto pledges apply only to England.
The manifesto says all NHS hospitals in England will become foundation trusts, with institutions already holding this status able to take over the management of less successful organisations.
GP services
It also sets out commitments to more personal healthcare, and greater access to GPs at weekends and evenings.
In each area of England, a GP led health centre is either already open or opening soon to provide care from 8am to 8pm seven days a week.
Labour also plans to work with charities to give cancer patients end-of-life care in their own homes, if they wish.
Everyone with a long-term condition will have the right to a care plan and an individual budget.
However, patients who fail to turn up for pre-booked appointments will lose the right for fast-track treatment, the manifesto says.
The general election manifesto confirms announcements already made that people suspected of having cancer will be referred to a specialist within two weeks, and get their test results within one week.
The promise of faster test results, which was announced at the last Labour party conference, will take until 2017 to be fully available to all patients in England.
A legal right for patients in England to receive hospital treatment within 18 weeks from referral by their GP came into force at the beginning of April.
The target for urgent suspected cancer cases to be seen by a specialist within two weeks also became a legal right at the same time.This article is from the BBC News website. ? British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.