WHILE the length of waiting lists for operations is the measure often employed by voters to determine the state of the NHS and by government as a guide to the extent of political feel-good, it comes as a shock today to discover how alarmingly long patients in East Lancashire can wait for other kinds of care.

For amid the high-profile attack on the lists for surgery, we learn of people with mental health problems having to wait almost four years for appointments. We hear, too, of children of waiting more than a year for help with speech problems and of old people facing delays of almost the same length for post-illness assessment that would enable them to stay in their own homes.

And while these services may not be among those in the NHS's politically-sensitive front line, they are crucial and, surely, deserve the same sort of urgent response from government that waiting lists for operations merit when they looking like costing votes.

Why should someone suffering from anxiety or depression have to wait twice as long for help as a person waiting for a hernia operation? Why should children speech difficulties get less priority -- when a year's delay in receiving therapy could leave them disadvantaged for life? Why should people needing a wheelchair ramp at home have to wait months for a visit from an occupational therapist to decide whether they can go on the waiting list for one?

Describing the figures behind all these delays as 'appalling,' patients' watchdog chief Nigel Robinson no doubt hits the nail on the head when speaks of a 'hidden problem' that needs to be screamed about from the rooftops -- so that it attracts the same kind of reaction from government as do the waiting lists for operations.

Fair treatment for all areas of the NHS must be the prescription -- and let there be a fuss to ensure it.