BURY and Rochdale Health Authority has received a £2.3 million cash boost to reduce waiting lists.

As reported in the Bury Times earlier this month, the extra funds will knock waiting lists down by 676 in Bury and Rochdale by March next year.

The local reduction campaign is part of the Government's target of cutting 100,000 off waiting lists in England - based on the figure inherited from the last government - in the lifetime of the current Parliament.

Local MPs David Chaytor and Ivan Lewis welcomed the cash.

Mr Chaytor said: "This is a real tonic for patients in Bury. New NHS money will tackle the first priority of local people - getting waiting lists down. Patients can be assured that the money will be specifically earmarked to deliver shorter waiting lists."

And Mr Lewis added: "The extra £500 million announced in the last Budget takes to £2 billion the new money the Government has put into the health service in our first year in power. That's £2 billion more than the Tories were planning to spend on the NHS. And it's more than three times as much as the Liberals promised the health service at the General Election."

Local health authority figures for February show that in Bury there were 1,834 patients waiting less than nine months for treatment, 119 for between nine and 11 months, 74 for between 12 and 14 months and 25 for between 15 and 17 months. The total fell by 106 compared with the previous month's figures. There are no people who have been waiting for 18 months or more and there will not be any in the financial year to March 1999.

The cash boost is part of a £288 million cash injection across the NHS in England. An extra £32 million is being held back in a performance fund to reward those health authorities who are on target to cut their waiting lists.

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