The following statistics have been released by the Department of Health: NHS inpatient and outpatient waiting times figures, The key points from the latest release are:

Inpatient Waiting times

* The number of patients, for whom English commissioners are responsible, waiting over the 26 weeks standard for inpatient admission at the end of September 2008 was 60 (compared to the total of 557,000).

* The number of patients, for whom English commissioners are responsible, waiting over 13 weeks at the end of September 2008 was 42,900, an increase of 2,200 (5.3%) from August 2008, but a fall of 29,800 (41.0%) from September 2007.
Outpatient Waiting times

* The number of patients, for whom English commissioners are responsible, waiting over the 13 weeks standard for a first outpatient appointment following GP referral at the end of September 2008 was 259 (compared to the total of 876,000). Of these 259, 91 were English residents waiting for appointments in Welsh hospitals.