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Waiting lists drop by 20,000
Hospital waiting lists have fallen by more than 20,000 patients in a single month, according to figures published by the Department of Health today.
The drop is five times more than that for the previous month and means the government has met its 1997 election pledge of reducing NHS in-patient queues by 100,000 from the level they inherited from the Tories.
But both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats claimed the huge fall in in-patient lists had merely shifted thousands of patients to the queue for an out-patient appointment with a consultant.
Doctors also said that they had come under massive pressure to slash waiting lists in the run up to the general election.
The figures out today are the last ones to be published before polling day on June 7.
They showed that in March, the number of people waiting for in-patient NHS treatment in England fell by 26,100 to 1,006,600.
It means Labour has hit its 1997 election pledge to reduce waiting lists by 100,000 from the 1.15m figure they inherited from the Tories.
In February, in-patient queues fell by 6,200, while winter pressures had led to slight increases in the lists earlier in the year.
The number of people waiting more than a year for in-patient treatment also fell by 4,200 to 41,400 in March.
But 158 patients had still waited more than the government's pledged maximum of 18 months for their operation.
The health secretary, Alan Milburn, said of today's figures: "In the months to come waiting list figures of course may fluctuate but the consistent trend is downward."
New policies from Labour include a pledge by 2008 there will be a maximum three-month wait for surgery.
The Conservatives accused the government of spinning the figures and said more people were on the waiting list to be on the waiting list as out-patient queues had increased since 1997.
Shadow health secretary Dr Liam Fox said: "Patients should believe their own experiences - not Labour's fiddled figures.
"The effect of the government's waiting list initiative has been to put political priorities ahead of the clinical needs of patients."
Figures for out-patients appointments showed that the number of people waiting longer than 13 weeks to see a consultant fell by 115,000 during the three months to the end of March.
But 284,000 people were still waiting to see a consultant more than 13 weeks after their GP had referred them.
And 82,000 of those had waited longer than 26 weeks for their out-patient appointment.
The figures showed that just 34% of people saw a consultant within a month of being referred by their family doctor.
Liberal Democrat health spokesman Nick Harvey said: "It is little wonder that the government are beginning to distance themselves from waiting list targets. It has distorted priorities and meant the number of people waiting to get on waiting lists has soared."