League tables published today reveal just how hard health chiefs have had to struggle in the relentless war to bring down waiting lists.

While hospitals across North Yorkshire are generally performing better than average compared with other hospitals around the country, there remain problem areas - despite all-out efforts to cut the time people are waiting for treatment.

The lists are not bang up to date. They show the percentage of people on waiting lists as of last March - since when thousands of pounds and probably hundreds of man hours have been sunk into getting people treated more quickly.

But nevertheless they show that at York District Hospital, at least up until March, waiting times for in-patient general surgery, eye operations and ear nose and throat operations were all getting longer rather than shorter.

In oral surgery and opthalmology in particular, the hospital is faring badly in comparison with other hospitals around the country, with only 42 per cent of patients being admitted for treatment within three months for oral surgery, compared with a 63 per cent national average.

Only in the area of general medicine did the hospital see an improvement in the number of patients admitted within three months, up to 93 per cent. That compares favourably with the national average of 89 per cent.

For outpatients, too, the outlook is mixed. While a healthy 98 per cent of oral surgery outpatients are seen within 13 weeks, compared to 79 per cent nationally, waiting times for ear, nose and throat patients, gynaecology patients and those waiting for plastic surgery are all growing longer.

In general, York Health Trust's record on treating outpatients is still slightly below the national average, while its record on admitting patients is slightly better than average.

None of that, though, takes into account the massive effort the hospital has made to cut waiting lists over the last few months.

Extra Government cash, and extra theatre sessions, with staff working weekends and evenings, have helped to reduce waiting lists for several months in a row.

George Wood, York Health Trust's deputy chief executive, said the hospital was treating record numbers of patients and carrying out more day case surgery than ever before.

There had been an "enforced slowdown" in routine surgery because of cash restraints, he admitted.

But he said there had been big increases in the number of day surgery cases being carried out, especially cataract operations.

He said: "The good news is that we have continued to increase the number of consultants working at the hospital, we have opened our new medical admissions ward to streamline the service, and we are about to launch a new, innovative outpatient service called Oasis which will increase the efficiency of our procedures.

"The result is that this year we are treating record numbers of patients more effectively than ever before."

Elsewhere in the county, both Harrogate and Scarborough health trusts regularly performed better than the national average on waiting times for in-patients and outpatients.

And North Yorkshire Ambulance Service improved its record on response times. It is still near the bottom of the league of rural ambulance services, with 95 per cent of emergencies being responded to within 14 minutes as of March. But spokesman Nigel Metcalfe said the record had got better since then and response times were still improving.

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