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NHS chief praises fall in waiting list timesThe National Health Service could hit its most politically sensitive target early, Sir NigelCrisp, the NHS chief executive, said on Friday.In his most bullish annual report since taking office four years ago, Sir Nigel said waiting times were falling faster and further than ever before, quality was improving and services were being redesigne

D、And productivity — hard though it is to measure — was improving, he sai
D、"Something big is happening within the NHS," Sir Nigel said, as the government reported that it had reached its target in March with only 48 patients waiting more than nine months for an operation.The maximum wait for an out-patient appointment is down to 17 weeks from 21 weeks a year ago. Just over 40,000 are now waiting over 13 weeks for an appointment against 400,000 in March 2000. The service has also reduced by almost 60,000 the number of people waiting between six and nine months for in-patient procedures.The reduction seems to suggest that genuine changes are taking place in the way the NHS is organising services to make them more efficient — rather than simply achieving the shorter maximum waits by "tail-gunning" the end of the waiting list.What is as yet missing is robust data to show that average waits are also starting to fall significantly."Not only are we hitting all of our targets in order to speed up patient care, but by reforming the way we work we are also improving the quality of patients care," Sir Nigel sai
D、"The NHS is using the extra funding" — an extra ￡6bn. last year — "to good effect, with major improvements in quality and quantity".With extra capacity in treatment centres due to start coming online it was possible that the NHS would hit the target of having no-one wait for more than six months, once on a waiting list, ahead ofDecember next year. Although the figures are not as robust as those used to measure hospital activity, Sir Nigel said it was clear more treatment was being provided outside hospitals, in a quicker and more convenient way for patients. Evidence for that includes the number of patients referred to hospital by GPs remaining almost flat last year while a ￡21 million increase in the bill for modern drugs to counter heart failure has brought an estimated reduction of 20,000 hospital admissions.With a big government review under way on how to measure productivity in the public services, Sir Nigel said the NHS still lacked "an adequate way of measuring overall productivity", but indicated there were clear improvements in the productivity of individual services. In March, how many patients waited more than nine months for an operation