Hospital waiting lists have fallen again, according to government figures.

The Department of Health revealed on Friday that more than 13,000 patients had been taken off the national waiting lists in one month.

And the figures revealed the number of people waiting for hospital admissions in England now stands at 958,900 - a drop of 83,000 on the same time last year.

The number of people waiting more than six months also fell by 16,600.

Health minister John Hutton claimed the government had made progress and would meeting key pledges by March.

"We are delivering on our pledge to bring down waiting times for patients," he said.

"We are able to make progress because we are building new hospitals and treatment centres, and recruiting more doctors and nurses.

"We will continue to add capacity to the NHS, so that nobody should have to wait longer than six months for an operation by 2005, and so that patients are offered choices in where they are treated."