LONG on criticism, the National Audit Office report is also long on suggestions for improvement.

It contains 25 recommendations for sharpening up the system, covering issues like inpatient and day case treatments, outpatient waiting times, diagnostics and therapies, and bedblocking. They include:

New booking schemes for patients awaiting treatment, giving them more choice in when they have operations, to try to minimise cancellations;

NHS trusts should focus on reducing average lengths of stay, empty bed intervals, and the numbers of medical patients occupying surgical beds. They should also improve use of operating theatres and increase day surgery rates;

NHS trusts should offer patients alternative appointments within 28 days of a cancellation;

Trusts and Local Health Boards should extend outpatient projects that reduce pressure on consultants, like pooled waiting lists to help balance consultants' caseloads, and assessment of patients by other qualified professionals;

Patients' access to diagnostic and therapy services should be increased and improved, to shorten waits on the path to treatment.

Bedblocking, or delayed discharge from hospital could be eased by better access to intermediate care.

Pharmacy arrangements, timing of doctors' ward rounds, and patients' transport arrangements should be reviewed to try to improve timely discharge.

The Assembly's waiting times strategy must be ambitious, set clear targets and take into account waiting times in England and Scotland.