No patient should be waiting longer than six months for an operation by next autumn as hospital waiting lists continue to fall dramatically, the NHS chief executive said today.

Sir Nigel Crisp said that waiting lists were down by more than a third in six years, with 857,221 patients waiting for an operation in England in October - a drop of 12 per cent in a year. But since the peak in 1998, the total waiting list has dropped by 455,397 - down 35 per cent.

Sir Nigel, publishing his review of the year, said that more work was needed to improve the NHS as a whole and to cut waiting times even further. Targets for next year would include tackling hospital acquired infections and improving access to NHS dentists - two areas that have caused particular concern to patients, he added

Sir Nigel also pledged to tackle so-called "hidden" waits so that waiting times took into account the whole patient journey.

He said that John Reid, the Health Secretary, had already announced that by 2008 no-one would have to wait more than 18 weeks from GP referral to hospital treatment, including any diagnostic tests.

The Liberal Democrats have condemned the long waiting times faced by some patients needing diagnostic tests such as MRI scans.

Sir Nigel said his report showed "four years of sustained improvement" since the NHS plan was published in 2000.

"In the summer I said that if the NHS was a business, our share price would be rising," Sir Nigel said. "At the end of 2004 I have not changed my mind because we are hitting our key targets and our surveys show that patient satisfaction levels are very high.

"Extra investment and the reforms we have implemented are paying real dividends. We are making fantastic progress at reducing waiting times for treatment, both in primary and secondary care."

The waiting list hit its peak in April 1998 when there were 1,313,000 patients waiting for hospital treatment. The latest figures showed a small rise of 621 patients between September and October.

The report said that further rises could be expected over winter, when the NHS was at its busiest, adding "but the downward trend is now very firmly established".

Sir Nigel said that the number of patients waiting more than six months for treatment had fallen from 163,230 to 69,638 in the last 12 months. The Government had set the target of no patients waiting longer than six months by the end of 2005, but Sir Nigel said he would be encouraging the NHS to hit this target by around October.

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