The latest figures on hospital waiting lists have revealed mixed news for patients.

Although the total number of people waiting for operations rose by nearly 11,000, health minister John Hutton claimed the government was making good progress.

The department blamed the rise on a seasonal increase that happens every year.

Figures released by his department highlighted that the number of patients waiting more than 12 months for treatment fell by 5.4 per cent to 21,200 during the month.

This is 22,400 less than the same time last year and is the lowest figure since September 1996.

Hutton claimed that by the end of March 2003 the NHS will, for the first time in its history, have cleared all the patients that were on its list at the start of the financial year.

He also named and shamed Royal United Hospitals in Bath which had 235 of the 242 patients waiting over 15 months for treatment.

Separate figures on cancer waiting times also published on Friday showed improvements. Between January and March, nearly 96 per cent of patients referred by their GP with suspected cancer were seen within two weeks.

For breast cancer the figure was 98.5 per cent, compared to 95.9 per cent at the same time last year. All children diagnosed with cancer and acute leukaemia received their first treatment within a month of being urgently referred by their GP with suspected cancer.

Hutton said the figures confirmed that the government was tackling the public's biggest concern over the NHS.

"This was a considerable achievement. But patients still wait too long for treatment. We want to ensure that by 2005 no one is waiting more than six months for treatment and three months for an initial appointment with a consultant. This is a challenging, but achievable, target," he said.

The Conservatives accused the government of hiding damaging figures and said that waiting lists remained above one million and were rising.

Shadow health secretary, Dr. Liam Fox, described the figures as "deeply depressing".

"These figures fail to tell the whole story. They don't mention the 250,000 people who now pay for their own operations each year in the UK, and those who feel forced to travel abroad at their own expense for surgery, rather than wait long periods in suffering," he said.

"The King's Fund had it right. They said that the government should 'stop making heroic promises and buckle down to the unglamorous detail of building a good-enough health system for the 21st century'. The people of Britain deserve an NHS that stands up for the values they believe in, rather than the government's empty promises that they have long ago stopped believing in."

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Dr Evan Harris criticised the government's failure to meet its target of having no patients waiting over 15 months.

"This monthly ritual has become a parody of spin, with the government so desperate to prove that they are improving the NHS," he said.

"There is now widespread evidence that the whole waiting list and waiting time industry is riddled with inconsistency about what counts as waiting, what counts as a procedure and what counts as an inpatient setting.

"All these figures are worse than useless as a measure of how well patients are being treated.