A West Sussex private hospital has been chosen to perform heart ops on NHS patients who have been waiting more than six months for surgery.

Earlier this year, Health Secretary Alan Milburn said victims of long cardiac waiting lists could ask the NHS to pay for the surgery to be performed in a different hospital at home or abroad.

The Department of Health has named the 16 private hospitals which will take part in the pioneering scheme. They include the King Edward VII Hospital in Midhurst.

Mr Milburn said: "If patients' local NHS hospital cannot offer them a shorter waiting time but another hospital can, they can choose."

Ministers recognise they need private and foreign hospitals to hit their target of ensuring no one waits more than six months for treatment by 2004.

In addition to the 16 private hospitals in the UK, patients will be given the choice of seven hospitals in Italy, Belgium and France.

The scheme has been criticised because it involves diverting taxpayers' money, earmarked for the NHS, to profit-making health firms.

Patients who choose to wait for treatment at their local hospital will be given a guarantee they will not wait more than 12 months.