Giving patients more choice of where and how they are treated could put them at risk, says the consumer lobby group Which?.

Increasing private sector involvement in NHS care, introducing minor operations in GP surgeries and blurring the boundaries between nurses, pharmacists and doctors will require more rigorous checks, the report warns.

The present system of regulating NHS and private hospitals, medicines, equipment and health professions is complex, fragmented and "ill-suited" for the new health landscape, says Frances Blunden, the principal policy adviser at Which?.

Patients may be seeing a range of different providers and taking medication without supervision. Planned electronic medical records are years behind schedule and are not expected until at least 2008, she says.