HOSPITAL chiefs are celebrating meeting tight waiting list targets - which means local patients are benefiting from shorter waits for treatment and appointments.

The York Health Trust has managed to hit its key targets for the last financial year, which ended on March 31, thanks to the hard work of its staff.

This was despite a series of setbacks during 2000-01. These included hundreds of operations being postponed early last year at York District Hospital because of the Norwalk Virus, which causes sickness and diarrhoea, and because of the long-term sick leave of a general surgeon.

The three main waiting list targets for the trust were: reducing the total number of patients on the waiting list; ensuring no-one was waiting more than 12 months for in-patient treatment; and reducing the number of people waiting 13 weeks or more for a first out-patient appointment.

At the end of March the trust had about 150 fewer people waiting for surgery at the district hospital than its 6,397 waiting list target, and there is no longer anyone waiting more than 12 months for treatment.

The trust has reduced the number of people waiting more than 13 weeks for their first out-patient appointment from a figure of about 2,500 to its 1,227 year end target.

Patrick Crowley, the trust's director of performance management, said these reductions were achieved despite some difficulties with medical staff availability and a significant growth in referrals - an average of eight per cent across the board.

He said: "This is a major achievement and endorses the findings of the Regional Patient Access team last year that suggested we were doing the right things with regard to modernising our services, seeing more patients, and working closely with GPs in managing the ever-increasing demand for our services."

Trust chief executive Simon Pleydell said: "This is a superb achievement by the trust, and is testament to the efforts and determination of all staff across the organisation to shorten waiting times for patients, despite growing levels of demand."

Updated: 10:38 Saturday, April 07, 2001