HEALTH Secretary John Reid yesterday hailed the Government's treatment centre programme for speeding up operations for patients and slashing waiting lists.

Dr Reid said the centres had treated more than 120,000 patients since they were launched.

But the British Medical Association (BMA) claimed that the centres were destabilising NHS hospitals.

The BMA said it was misleading of Dr Reid to claim that treatment centres were treating patients eight times faster than hospitals.

Publishing a progress report, Dr Reid said the success of the programme, first announced in 2002, had contributed to a massive fall in the number of people waiting for NHS operations.

The latest figures showed there were 844,000 people on the waiting list at the end of November - down by 13,000 since October. The Department of Health said this was the lowest number of people on the waiting list since comparable data was first collected in September 1987.

The treatment centres, run by both the NHS and independent sector, carry out routine operations such as cataract surgery and hip and knee replacements.

Yesterday's report also revealed that more than 10,000 people had been treated by mobile cataract surgery units, which were launched last February.

Dr Reid said the treatment centres played an important role in speeding up access to treatment for patients and improving quality of care and patients' experience.

"This is shown by the mobile cataract chain treating 10,000 patients in less than 11 months - operating at a rate almost eight times faster than traditional NHS services.

"This higher rate is achievable because the units are able to concentrate on a single procedure in a modern, purpose-built unit."

The only fast-track treatment centre in the North-East and North Yorkshire is the joint replacement unit at Bishop Auckland General Hospital.

The County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals NHS Trust says the centre has already treated 120 patients, but an infection scare has temporarily closed the unit. A total of 1,079 patients are due to be treated at the centre during 2005.

Two more centres are being built in the region for NHS patients - one at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead, and a privately-run clinic at the Cobalt Business Park, North Tyneside.