The waiting list total has fallen

Ministers say that at the end of March, only a handful of people had been waiting more than a year for an operation - claiming success in another key target.

While government policy is currently focused on the length of time individuals have been waiting, rather than the numbers on the overall list itself, crossing the million mark remains deeply symbolic.

In March, the "inpatient waiting list" fell by 35,300 to 992,000.

Independent hospitals reported the usual surge in bookings in March from NHS managers keen to meet targets.

Patients are beginning to see the results in better, faster services Alan Milburn, Health Secretary

They treated approximately 13,000 patients on behalf of the NHS in March.

Health Secretary Alan Milburn said: "The extra resources and reforms we are putting into the NHS are reducing both waiting times and waiting lists.

"Patients are beginning to see the results in better, faster services.

"Waiting times had been rising for decades in the NHS. They are now coming down."

The next target for the NHS is to make sure that no-one is waiting longer than six months for treatment - which ministers are confident they can reach by 2005.

The target that no-one should wait longer than a year for operations was missed - but only by 73 people - 57 of whom are at just one trust, East and North Hertfordshire, which is under investigation as a result.

Busier service

NHS chief executive Sir Nigel Crisp pointed to other indicators that suggested that health service capacity was being increased.

Figures suggest that many more people are using NHS walk-in treatment centres, the NHS phone helpline NHS Direct - or simply arriving looking for treatment at A&E units up and down the country.

Private hospital chiefs point to the success of the "concordat" between the NHS and the independent sector as a key factor in the drop in waiting lists and times.

The chief executive of the Independent Healthcare Association, Barry Hassell, said that almost 200,000 NHS operations had been carried out in private hospitals since October 2000, when the deal was signed.

If NHS managers made more use of private options, he said, the waiting list could be cut back yet further.

He said: "If the figures for March 2003 were repeated in every other month of the year, by NHS commissioners grasping the opportunity, the independent sector could comfortably treat 150,000 NHS patients a year in line with IHA forecasts at the time of the Concordat signing in October 2000."

Shadow Health Secretary Dr Liam Fox said: "It is a damning indictment of the Government that they use their own analysis of the NHS to try to generate good news and disguise their own abject failings.