Hospital managers have pledged that no patient will wait more than six months for appointments and operations from the end of December.

In addition, no patient will wait more than 13 weeks for their first outpatient appointment at East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust.

Its chief executive, Kim Hodgson, said: "We are pleased to be able to say that patients have now been given a date for admission to come into hospital for an operation or day-case and their first outpatient appointment.

"This is great news for patients and will mean no one will be waiting longer than six months for an operation and 13 weeks for their first outpatient appointment by December 31.

"We know patients don't like waiting for treatment and it is important for us to keep reducing the time they wait.

"This has been a challenge for everyone and our staff have been tremendous in helping us to reduce the time patients wait.

"By 2008, patients will get hospital treatment within 18 weeks of their GP referral, a far cry from the not too distant past when patients waited up to 18 months for an operation."

Officials said advances in surgery mean waiting times have fallen across the trust, which runs the Eastbourne District General and the Conquest Hospital, St Leonards.

Clinical director for surgery, Paul Rowe, said: "With more day surgery and reduced length of stay, we can treat more people, moving them through the hospital more efficiently.

"About 70 per cent of our patients currently wait less than three months for their operation or procedure and no patients will wait longer than six months after December."