National Health Service waiting lists fell by 20,000 in August, the fourth successive monthly fall, the British Health Secretary, Mr Frank Dobson, revealed yesterday as he announced a twin-pronged national inquiry into hospital bed numbers and the use to which they are put.
With voters watching Labour's election "early pledge" to achieve a major reduction in the waiting list, the latest drop brings the cumulative fall to 60,000 and is politically welcome to Mr Dobson who announced the news to his party conference in Blackpool.
"The super-tanker has turned. Waiting lists will keep coming down," he declared before revealing that a further £320 million will be allocated from the NHS's £5 billion "modernisation fund" to reduce both the numbers on the waiting list and the time they wait.
But ministers of both parties have seen the total number of NHS beds fall relentlessly in recent years - 100,000 in the past 10 years - as better medical techniques and management emerge. Yesterday Mr Dobson admitted the trend has "gone too far" in some parts of the country.
In parallel with the inquiry on "numbers, mix and use" of hospital beds, he told the conference local health and social services will in future be required to work together to improve front-line care, not least the service given to old people who are often left "bed blocking" in hospitals long after their medical treatment is over.
The new shared priorities for the next three years include lower death rates from cancer and coronary heart disease among the poorest and better rehabilitation services for the elderly.
In a speech which won the Health Secretary a standing ovation, he declared: "We also need the right staff with the right skills and we've got to look after them better. We're going to make sure that louts who assault nurses, doctors and ambulance staff get caught and punished."
Mr Dobson conceded that pay was also a crucial factor. Staff had to be fairly rewarded, but the pay bill had to be affordable, a clear hint that nurses may again be disappointed.
Earlier, the party leadership won the first real test of its authority on the conference floor when delegates voted down a move to re-nationalise the railways.
The move, spearheaded by the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, was defeated after a promise of much tighter regulation of privatised operators. The union's call was rejected on a show of hands.
The Deputy Prime Minister, Mr John Prescott, urging party activists not to back the RMT's motion, said it was not just a question of either being for or against public ownership.
"The real question is about whether we put £20 billion of government resources and effort in the next few years into re-nationalising Railtrack as a priority, instead of putting resources into public investment - into schools, hospitals and investment."
Heralding a "spring clean" of the much-criticised rail industry, with a new regulator, a new shadow Strategic Rail Authority and renegotiated contracts, he said: "It's time to give the red signal to the rail industry and demand all change. Travelling by train should be a delight, not an ordeal."
On homelessness, Mr Prescott said ministers had released £5 billion of council capital receipts for new housing and injected £177 million to tackle the root causes of rough sleeping. In addition, there was an £800 million programme to regenerate poor neighbourhoods under the New Deal for Communities.
It was important to help the people who lived in depressed areas, not just renovate the houses they lived in, he said.