BURY and Rochdale Health Authority is on target to receive extra government cash in the fight against hospital waiting lists.

Figures for the end of March this year show that 10,940 Bury and Rochdale patients were on waiting lists in hospitals all over the country.

The Government has promised a total of £2,314,000 to reduce this figure by 1,046 by the end of March next year.

Out of that, £378,000 is allocated so that Bury Health Care NHS Trust can cut 224 patients from the town's waiting lists by the end of March - taking the figure down from 2,045 to 1,821.

Hospitals will have to meet certain requirements in order to receive the cash, and Bury waiting lists must fall by the given figure..

The town's hospitals must also sustain their current record of having no patients waiting more than 18 months for treatment.

The Government will operate a monthly monitoring system, collecting data to ensure that the criteria are continually met. The money will be paid quarterly in arrears.

In Bury the waiting list figure grew by 199 in the last financial year.

But hospital bosses are confident that they will be able to stay within the government guidelines and qualify for all the extra cash.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.