Hospital waiting lists in North Yorkshire bounced up again last month - but NHS managers say they are confident that the overall trend is still down.

The number of patients across the Northern and Yorkshire region who are waiting for treatment rose by 4,000 between March and April, to 132,483.

In North Yorkshire, numbers waiting rose from 14,919 to 15,603, while the York NHS Trust's waiting list jumped from 6,715 to 6,879.

There were similar increases at other trusts in the county, with Harrogate's list going from 2,685 to 2,901, Scarborough and NE Yorkshire's from 2,978 to 3,001, Northallerton's from 1,653 to 1,754 and East Yorkshire Hospitals' from 2,927 to 3,124.

However, across the area, the figures are still considerably better than this time last year - and also better than the original target for the end of March.

The monthly rise was branded "disappointing but expected" by Tony Baldasera, head of waiting lists at the Northern and Yorkshire regional office of the NHS Executive.

He said that staff had worked flat out throughout last year, often outside normal working hours, to cut the number of patients waiting for treatment.

"Clearly, the sheer intensity of those efforts could not be sustained indefinitely."

He said that once the original waiting list target had been reached and beaten, many staff had been able to take well-deserved holidays.

"Extra operating sessions were also scaled down as hospitals prepared for a renewed effort to make further progress this year.

"It is important to remember that, in addition to cutting waiting lists to their lowest levels for years, trusts and health authorities also reduced the number of people waiting more than a year by over two thirds."

He warned that there could be more monthly setbacks over coming months, and said more people would be added to in-patient waiting lists as a knock-on result of efforts to cut outpatient waiting lists.

"But we are confident that the overall trend will be down."

The total waiting across England rose by 19,700. Health Secretary Frank Dobson blamed the rise on hospital staff taking Easter breaks after the winter crisis, but shadow Health Secretary Ann Widdecombe said: "Labour's failure of our health service is clear for all to see now that waiting lists have actually risen, despite all Frank Dobson's complacent boasts that they were about to meet their political pledge."

Junior doctors today voted for a ballot on industrial action over pay and conditions.

Delegates at the British Medical Association junior doctors conference voted unanimously for a ballot of all 36,000 doctors unless negotiations resolve the issue. The decision follows the publication of the results of a survey of juniors which say 95 per cent were in favour of some form of industrial action and one fifth were prepared to strike.

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