Alan Milburn should be ashamed

Liam Fox, Shadow Health Secretary

But the government say the latest figures, covering the period from September to November last year, show the number waiting over a month was 4,684, a 14% fall from the peak of 5,437 in the quarter ending in March 2001.

'Double failure'

Shadow health secretary Dr Liam Fox said the situation was "a national disgrace"

He called on the Health Secretary should tackle the NHS's shortcomings instead of "obsessively setting targets which measure little of real use".

Dr Fox said: "Alan Milburn should be ashamed. The system is doubly failing these patients.

"Patients suffer the distress of having their operations cancelled and then thousands are left in pain and fear as they wait for more than a month to be re-admitted.

"Alan Milburn should be concentrating on tackling the shortcomings in the NHS rather than obsessively setting targets which measure little of real use."

A Department of Health spokesman told BBC News Online: "We know too many operations are being cancelled but we are tackling this by introducing trouble-shooting managers to turn around the NHS, and by introducing on-the-spot booking by patients.

"Our figures show that the number of breaches has come down by 14% since the peak in March 2001."