The average wait from seeing a GP to the start of hospital treatment is now down to just eight weeks, the shortest in the history of the NHS, the government claimed on Thursday.

With the average wait falling rapidly, the NHS in England is also well on track to hit its maximum waiting time target – by December no one should be forced to wait more than 18 weeks from GP to hospital admission or the start of outpatient treatment.

The maximum waiting time target assumes 90 per cent of inpatients should start treatment within 18 weeks and 95 per cent of out-patients, allowing for those patients for whom it would be inappropriate clinically to start treatment, and for those who choose to wait longer, for example for family or holiday reasons.

In some specialities, however, the NHS remains well short of the target, notably in orthopaedics but also in neurosurgery. Ben Bradshaw, the health minister, said “an international shortage of spinal surgeons” was holding up progress.

Nonetheless, Alan Johnson, the health secretary, said the figures were “a real milestone”. That compared with a significant number of patients waiting at least 18 months – and in some cases far longer – a decade ago.

The 18-week maximum means the median wait for inpatient treatment is now down to eight weeks, Mr Johnson said. While direct comparison with older figures is difficult, the health department believed the waiting time to be “the lowest ever level since the NHS was created”.