NHS waiting lists back over million mark

NHS waiting lists are back over the one million mark less than a month after the Government announced they had fallen below six figures for the first time in a decade.

Figures released by the Department of Health yesterday revealed that in April the number of people waiting for in-patient treatment rose from 992,000 to 1,001,300.

The number of people waiting more than a year for an operation rose from 61 in March to 134 in April. Five people had been waiting more than 15 months, the maximum delay set down by the Government.

The figures will add to concerns that once waiting targets have been hit, the focus moves to another area and the lists begin to rise again.

During April, hospitals were under intense pressure to hit a government target of keeping the maximum wait in A&E departments to under four hours. Doctors complained that they were being forced to cancel routine operations and spend extra money on temporary staff in order to hit the target.

Alan Milburn, the Secretary of State for Health, did not comment on the rise yesterday, and instead announced an extra £50m to reduce waiting times for orthopaedic operations. Sir Nigel Crisp, chief executive of the NHS, said he expected waiting lists to fall back below the million mark in the summer.

The Government has pledged that by 2005, no one will wait longer than six months for surgery. But Liam Fox, the shadow Health Secretary, said: "Waiting times have again deteriorated. It is now quite clear that Labour's failure to undertake radical reform means that taxpayers' money will continue to be wasted and Britain's standards of health care will lag further behind the rest of Europe."