Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, redefined the language of NHS reforms yesterday when she called for more competition between hospitals as a spur to innovation and greater patient satisfaction.

She abandoned the term "contestability", a more slippery word coined by advisers to distinguish Labour's policies from those of the Conservatives.

In a lecture at the London School of Economics she said: "Where we mean competition, we should say so, instead of pretending contestability is something different. Yes, money will follow the patient. But why should choice, innovation, competition and financial discipline be confined to private markets?"

The lecture was intended to restore the momentum of the government's NHS reforms after a turbulent month in which Ms Hewitt was forced on the defensive by disclosure of a £623m forecast NHS deficit.

Health ministers think they can avoid backbench criticism if they are clear about their intentions. The lecture spelled out how hospitals and other NHS providers would compete to attract patients who, from next month, will have at least four choices of where to go for treatment.

Although Ms Hewitt embraced the word competition, she denied this meant she was creating a market. "We are often accused of introducing a market into the NHS ... I do not believe we are, and nor do I think we should," she said.

Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said: "The government's rhetoric of more competition and choice will not work without providing the necessary freedoms."