NHS hospital patients say they are waiting less time for emergency treatment and outpatient departments, two major national surveys have found.

More than three quarters (77 per cent) of patients told the Healthcare Commission they were treated in A&E within the Government’s key four-hour target.

Outpatients also reported shorter waiting times, with 80 per cent given an appointment within three months - up five per cent on the previous year.

Some patients though are still unhappy with standards of cleanliness and also want more information to help them to make decisions about their health care.

The findings were welcomed by the Department of Health as a valuable way for the NHS to gauge what it was doing well and where it needed to improve.

Healthcare Commission chief executive Anna Walker said: “This survey is very encouraging and it is particularly good to see patients beginning to experience a reduction in waiting times.

“There is much to celebrate but patients still - and rightly so - expect further improvement in their health services. Patients are sending a very clear message that they want more involvement in decisions on their treatment and that current standards of cleanliness are still not good enough. That must improve.”

A department spokesperson said: “The findings give the NHS an indication as to what they are doing well and more importantly, areas in which there is room for improvement, so that they can focus on delivering the standards that patients have a right to expect in the NHS.

“Since these surveys were conducted, the NHS has embarked upon a major indicative to improve cleanliness and reduce healthcare-associated infection. The chief nursing officer Chris Beasley has this as one of her key objectives.”