Dip in hospital waiting lists

The number of patients forced to wait more than a year for hospital treatment has fallen slightly - by 2.3 per cent - according to figures published by the Department of Health today.

However, there are still more than a million people on hospital waiting lists with 10,000 of those waiting for more than 15 months. The Government has pledged that by next April no patient will wait more than 15 months - an ambitious target in the light of today's figures.

The number of people waiting more than 13 weeks for an initial outpatient appointment is down by about 25 per cent on the same time last year.