- guardian.co.uk, Friday July 1 2005 12.59 BST
Hospitals are still missing a key government target on waiting times, according to new figures published today.
The latest NHS waiting list figures show the number of patients waiting over six months for treatment at the end of May has risen by 9.3% to 49,600 since April, despite a key promise made by the former health secretary John Reid to cut six-month waits to 46,666 by the end of March 2005.
Though that target has not been met, the current number of patients waiting at least six months for hospital treatment has still dropped by a over a third since March 2004, when 79,950 were on the list.
The government has pledged that by December no patient in England will wait more than six months for an operation - and says it is on track to meet this target.
In May, the health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, said that increased use of the private sector in treating NHS patients would help the government to meet its waiting list targets.
Only 17 people had waited for over nine months for treatment at the end of May, eight of whom were English residents waiting in Welsh hospital, which have longer waits.
The overall NHS waiting list in England stands at 814,000, down by 67,000 (7.6%) in the past 12 months.
