Northern Ireland's hospital waiting lists have topped 60,000 for the first time.

The figures - released by the Department of Health - show the total number of people waiting for treatment has now gone up every quarter for the last three years.

Health Minister Des Browne said he believed measures put in place by his predecessor to reduce waiting lists were beginning to bear fruit.

However, the total queue is now at its longest ever and people called long waiters - those who wait in breach of patients' charter standards - have also hit an all time high of more than 9,000.

Huge focus has been put on cutting the queues in the last few years.

BBC Northern Ireland health correspondent Dot Kirby said: "These measures will impact on the figures, but at best they are only likely to bring about a dip in the totals - not the substantial drop that the minister seems to be hoping for."

'Longest queues'

Last year, the Northern Ireland Executive announced an extra �41m to help ease the situation.

Earlier this year, it emerged that Northern Ireland had the worst hospital waiting lists in Europe.

For some years it has had the longest queues in the United Kingdom - but now it is the worst in the European Union.

In Northern Ireland, the health boards are in breach of charter standards if patients have been waiting more than 12 months for heart surgery - or 18 months for everything else.