A Tory Government would replace "top-down" NHS targets and focus on making people healthier, David Cameron said on Monday.
He said his party would concentrate on outcomes, such as the life expectancy of cancer patients, instead of national limits for hospital waiting.
Doctors would get more control over their budgets and the responsibility to direct the priorities of the health service.
Speaking in Bristol, Mr Cameron said the present target regime was "distorting" the health service.
Decisions about what patients need should drive the NHS, not "distant bureaucracy".
The Tory leader and shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said they would strive to beat European averages on health outcomes.
Mr Cameron said: "We have a more straightforward and more meaningful aim, which is to focus on outcomes in terms of health, rather than money or targets.
"What that means is looking at things like how long are people surviving when they have cancer. These are the real measures of how well the National Health Service is performing."
Despite the Government's "strong commitment" to the NHS when it came to office, patients' experiences had not improved because Labour "did not know what they wanted to do".
"One of the things that most excites me about the agenda we are setting out is the clarity of the plan and the clarity of the thinking," he said.
