Controversial deferred hospital waiting lists will be scrapped next year, the Scottish Executive has confirmed.

From 1 April 2003, deferred lists, where patients are placed when they are unable to have an operation on a specific date, will be abolished and replaced by a single waiting list.

At present 25,000 patients across Scotland are on a deferred list for treatment.

Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm, who announced his intention to scrap them in August, said he wanted the NHS in Scotland to be "open and transparent".

Malcolm Chisholm: "Measure progress"

Patients on deferred lists may have been too ill to undergo their operation, missed an appointment, or may have asked for an alternative date.

Unlike the main waiting list, the deferred list is not covered by a guarantee that the maximum wait for inpatient day treatment will be 12 months.

A report from the Auditor General for Scotland, Robert Black, said the number of patients on the main waiting lists in Scotland fell from 84,521 to 71,965 between 1993 and 2002.

However, the number on deferred lists had risen from 13,451 to 25,270 over the same period.

The deferred lists are only supposed to be used when planned hospital treatment is put off to a later date.

Review cases

The report found no evidence that the lists were being used to fiddle waiting list figures, but did criticise how they were managed.

Mr Chisholm said on Monday he believed patients would benefit from the change.

He said: "We want to be able to measure progress and have difficulties flagged up where there are issues.

"The new single inpatient/day case waiting list will allow us to measure more closely the reasons why patients may not receive treatment."

Deferred waiting lists are nothing more than a device to fiddle the waiting list figures

Nicola Sturgeon SNP health spokeswoman

All NHS trusts north of the border would be expected to review cases on their deferred lists, the minister added.

Scottish National Party health spokeswoman Nicola Sturgeon said the move was "good news".

"This is a move that's long overdue and I doubt it would have happened without the very consistent SNP pressure.

"Deferred waiting lists are nothing more than a device to fiddle the waiting list figures and the sooner they go the better."

Tory health spokeswoman Mary Scanlon said: "For too long Scottish government hid behind the manipulation of statistics to try to pretend Scotland's waiting lists and waiting times were under control."