Queues for operations have reached an all-time low, Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon announced yesterday.

The number of patients waiting for procedures and the length of the delay are smaller than ever before, according to official figures.

By the end of 2007 all patients referred to hospital consultants had their first appointment within 18 weeks. In addition, all those who needed some kind of procedure received it within the same time frame.

The only exceptions were those who were too ill for surgery, those who did not turn up, those who declined reasonable appointment dates and 98 whose treatment was deemed highly specialised or of low clinical priority.

In the past such patients have been stripped of their waiting time guarantee and could, Ms Sturgeon said, "languish for months and in some cases years" in hidden NHS queues.

However, that system was scrapped at the end of 2007. Those waiting for low priority or very specialised treatment should now be seen within the same 18 week limit as everyone else. The other groups are also eligible, but the clock will stop ticking against the deadline during periods when they are unavailable for treatment.

Ms Sturgeon congratulated NHS Scotland for meeting the waiting times targets, describing it as a "tremendous achievement".

She said: "This reflects a significant performance change across a wide range of hospital services improving patients' experience of hospital care."

She pointed out on December 31 there were 67,000 people waiting for hospital procedures compared to a high of 114,000 in 2004. Similarly the number of people queuing for their first outpatient appointment was just under 160,000 down from high of 200,000.

Ms Sturgeon admitted the previous Labour executive "had a very sharp focus on waiting times and the reduction in waiting times started under the previous administration".

However she questioned whether the last government would have been as successful in ensuring those previously excluded for waiting times targets, received timely treatment.

She also said the focus the SNP had placed on reducing waiting times for cancer patients had improved performance. The proportion of cancer sufferers who started treatment within two months of referral to hospital crossed the 90% mark last September for the first time, according to data released yesterday.

Unofficial records leaked to The Herald last November suggested hospitals had hit the 95% target - supposed to have been met in 2005.

Ross Finnie, Shadow Health Secretary for the Liberal Democrats, congratulated NHS staff but expressed concern about the way the gov-ernment's policy on waiting times was being implemented.

A row blew up last month when Nicol Stephen, LibDem leader, produced a letter to a patient in which a consultant said his bosses had told him to remove people from waiting lists in order to meet targets.

Mr Finnie said: "Nicol Stephen's exposure of the plight of the patient in NHS Tayside forced the Health Secretary to intervene to clarify the way in which the health board had interpreted her policy instructions."

Dr Richard Simpson, Labour's Shadow Minister for Public Health, said: "Labour set tough waiting times targets for the NHS in Scotland and thanks to the efforts of the hard-working staff and the investment by Labour in government these targets have been largely met."

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