PATIENTS forced to endure an agonising 12-month wait for hip or knee surgery in York could soon see their wait dramatically reduced.

York Health Services NHS Trust is hoping to recruit two orthopaedic consultants - over and above the six currently employed - to help meet strict Government waiting list targets.

As part of the changes the orthopaedic ward would be "ring-fenced", so that its beds could not be used by other departments, and a third surgical theatre would be created.

An orthopaedic community rehabilitation scheme could also be implemented to reduce the length of stay from 9.5 days to five days for 75 per cent of joint replacements.

Under the proposed scheme, which will be recommended for approval by the trust board at a meeting tomorrow, patients meeting strict criteria could recover in their own home, improving recovery and reducing the risk of hospital-acquired complications while increasing hospital capacity.

Trust chief executive Simon Pleydell said the trust was making a "quantum leap" to improve its orthopaedic waiting list numbers.

He said: "I don't think it's right for patients to be waiting for 12 months for a hip replacement.

"Seventy per cent of all of our patients are treated within three months. But we do have - and orthopaedics is particularly one of these - a handful of specialties that have a long-waiters problem."

The department is currently meeting, but not exceeding, the 12-month waiting time target.

This is managed through the use of the Duchy Hospital, in Harrogate, and the Purey Cust, in York, which is expected to leave the trust with a private sector bill of £1,305,000 by the end of the financial year.

However the NHS Plan waiting time targets are set to reduce to nine months in 2003/04 and again to six months in 2004/05.

Morag Francis, secretary of the York Orthopaedic Support Group, who has had both hips replaced and operations on both wrists, said: "I waited seven months for hip replacements and that was too long. It is excruciatingly painful."

Mr Pleydell said it was vital that the delayed discharge problem, which currently leaves 44 patients on the wards because there is nowhere suitable for them to go, was tackled in order to meet the new targets.

He said: "We are hoping that by April there will be a further reduction on the 44 delayed discharges, hopefully below the 30 mark."

Health trust facing £1.3m

Updated: 11:38 Tuesday, January 28, 2003