The halving of waiting times is down to staff, says John Reid

Speaking on BBC's Breakfast with Frost, he said only a handful of people - no more than 30 - were waiting longer.

And he also promised the government would reduced the wait by half again over the next four years.

The Conservatives said concentrating on waiting list figures "distorted clinical priorities".

Reduction

Dr Reid told the programme, broadcast from a Bedfordshire hospital, the achievement was "due to the efforts of staff".

In the interview on Sunday, ahead of the release of the official figures, he said: "I have checked with the chief executive.

"The figures haven't officially come out but I can tell you that, with the exception of a handful of people, there is no one in England now, other than 20 or 30 people, waiting more than nine months.

We will halve the maximum again and we will halve the average again John Reid, health secretary

"That is a 50% reduction in the maximum waiting time since the government came in, due to the efforts of staff," he said.

"If we have halved it over the last five years, we are going to halve it over the next four years as well, so that by 2008, the maximum waiting time in this country will be about three or four months and the average waiting time for an operation will be five weeks.

"We will halve the maximum again and we will halve the average again."

Overdue

He said the improvements were long overdue.

"That is the sort of health service we should have had in this country for 50 years and we are going to deliver it.

"That is largely down to all of the people sitting here today, the staff."

But the Conservatives said the achievement did not tell the whole story.

Tim Yeo, the shadow health secretary, said a number of people were opting out of the NHS and going private.

"Recent reports prove that waiting lists targets are continuing to distort clinical priorities," he added.

"It is time that the government listened to Conservative demands to scrap their centrally set political targets and set health professionals free to treat patients when they see fit."

Dr Reid also announced an expansion of the use of private-sector scanners to reduce waits for cancer patients.

He said: "This week I will be placing adverts for another 80,000 scans per year from the independent sector to supplement the NHS expansion."

He said that over the next five years, 400,000 more scans would be carried out by 12 mobile MRI scanners.