HOSPITALS boasting superb facilities, an NHS supported by thousands more staff, and waiting lists for operations down to just a few weeks. Could this really be the future of health service for the St Helens borough?

Well, all that could become reality... if the ambitious vision outlined by Health Secretary John Reid is achieved.

Dr Reid spoke of his aims after touring a new 'superward' at St Helens Hospital in March to witness how tremendous facilities are providing a real tonic to the borough's poorly elderly folk.

It was the cabinet minister's second trip to the �6.5million Elyn Lodge in the space of six months. Back in August, when the ward was still under construction, Mr Reid laid a foundation stone to mark the beginning of a �250million transformation of St Helens' hospitals. He returned to the Peasley Cross site on Friday to see the project's first phase.

Despite such radical alterations to health care in places like St Helens, surveys suggest people across the country still feel the Labour Government has a long way to go to improve the NHS.

After meeting with staff to discuss the wrongs and rights of current health plans, the Secretary of State told of improvements that had been made.

He described Whiston Hospital's Accident and Emergency Department four-hour turnaround in treating and diagnosing patients as providing a "world standard" service, considering 8,500 patients pass through that zone each month.

And with funds now in place to transform the archaic hospital wards in St Helens, Whiston, and Newton into modern, first class, facilities, the challenge will lie in slashing frustrating operation waiting times and finding the funds for more staff.

Dr Reid said: "This month I am hoping we will come very close to or meet our target of having halved the maximum waiting time from 18 months when we came in as a government to nine months, throughout England.

"If we do that, our next objective is to reduce that to six months by the end of 2005 on the way to the most difficult of all, three months' maximum by 2008.

"The averages would mean at the moment we had brought the average down from about six months to 2.5 months - I want to bring that down to about four weeks by 2008. It can be done as long as the investment is put in and can be matched by willingness of staff to reform."

Dr Reid, meanwhile, officially opened the two-ward Elyn Lodge, designed for stroke patients and people undergoing rehabilitation after sickness.

He unveiled a sundial and birdbath at the ward's therapy garden, and presented an award to Joyce Wilcox, director of nursing at the Trust who after 25 years' service is moving on to a new position with the Strategic Health Authority.