Susan Deacon: Cautious welcome

But the Scottish National Party has accused Labour of breaking a pledge to reduce waiting lists by 10,000 before the next general election.

The figures also indicate that five NHS Trusts in Scotland failed to meet their performance targets on waiting lists.

Ms Deacon said that, despite the good work carried out to bring waiting lists down, she warned NHS management there was no room for complacency.

She said: "These reductions both in the overall numbers of patients waiting for treatment and in the numbers waiting more than 12 months, are welcome.

"The figures show steady improvements in waiting across most of the country. NHS Scotland is working hard to treat more patients more quickly than ever before.

"Thanks to the hard work of NHS staff and the additional government investment delivered to front line services, over 100,000 more operations were carried out last year than in 1997."

SNP health spokeswoman Nicola Sturgeon said: "These are likely to be the last figures published before the election, yet waiting lists are over 600 higher than the figure which Labour inherited.

Nicola Sturgeon: Pointing the finger at Labour

"And there has been an annual increase in waiting lists from December 1999 to December 2000 of nearly 10% - or 7,603 - which is a total disgrace.

"It was Labour who made waiting list figures the be-all-and-end-all of their health policy, and they have failed - and failed abysmally."

Scottish Conservative health spokeswoman Mary Scanlon said Labour's pledges to save the NHS and cut waiting lists were "not worth the glossy paper they were written on."

She said: "Aided and abetted by the Lib Dems, Labour's failure on health is there for all to see.

"People are waiting longer for outpatient appointments, a total of 135 consultant posts lie vacant, as do 1,300 nursing posts.

'Falling standards'

"Labour's endless talk of record spending is meaningless for patients and health service professionals who have nothing to show for stumping up higher taxes but poorer services and falling standards in our health service."

Yet waiting times in Scotland are now said to be shorter than elsewhere in the UK.

NHS Trusts in Grampian and Tayside, Ayrshire and Arran, Forth Valley and Argyll and Clyde have also been criticised for failing to meet performance targets.