A WORLD-class health service by 2015 - that is the aim of a ten-year plan for Wales launched by Assembly Health Minister Dr Brian Gibbons today.

Called Designed For Life - Creating World Class Health and Social Care for Wales in the 21st Century, the plan foresees a "healthy, dynamic" nation free of long waiting-times and bedblocking, with modern, responsive hospital services, a thriving primary care sector and improving standards of health.

It is an ambitious vision built around targets already in the public arena, such as those set up to reduce waiting-times from GP referral to treatment to a maximum six months by the end of 2009, and new proposals focusing on sound NHS finances, closer working relationships between the NHS and local authorities, and better co-ordination of services.

The improvements outlined in Designed For Life will be driven through a trio of three-year strategic frameworks, with three-yearly reviews to measure progress.

The first framework will concentrate on redesigning care, with the years 2005-08 described in the plan as "amongst the most challenging and critical for the service in Wales".

As well as achieving most of the proposed hospital waiting- times improvements in this period, new NHS and local authority plans for tackling bedblocking are expected to have freed up scores of hospital beds.

There are also plans to modernise mental health services, chronic disease management and children's services.

The second three-year framework, from 2008-11, is about developing higher standards, with a focus on an educated, motivated workforce.

The third three-year framework, for 2011-2014, is called Ensuring Full Engagement, and is based on ensuring the themes of the 2003 Wanless Review of Health and Social Care are met. The involvement of individuals and communities in their own health improvement is vital to this.

The message in Designed For Life is upbeat, championing what are described as firm foundations laid during the past five years for tackling the long-term problems of the NHS in Wales.

But perhaps the biggest challenge is convincing a sceptical population that Wales can achieve a world-class health service in ten years.