283,000 Mr Milburn rejected claims that surgical waiting lists were reduced by making the outpatient lists longer - it fell by 115,000 to 283,000 in the first quarter of the year. But the Liberal Democrats say Labour's failure to tackle the problem sooner has caused suffering for many patients. It has distorted priorities and meant the number of people waiting to get on waiting lists has soared. The fact is that waiting lists are still higher than when Labour came to power. Hundreds of thousands of people have suffered pain and misery because Labour woke up far too late to the need for investment in doctors and nurses.
Labour are still more obsessed with spin doctors than doctors.
Patients should believe their own experiences not Labour's fiddled figures. Labour said they would cut numbers waiting by 100,000 in their 1997 pledge card. In March 1997 the number of in and out patients waiting in England and Wales was 1,502,000. In June 2001 there are 1,442,000. This is a reduction of 60,000.