CANCELLED operations at East Lancashire's hospitals have fallen to their lowest figure for six years, new figures have revealed.

Between April and December last year 312 operations were cancelled compared to 459, 491, 495, 542 and 434 during the same period in the previous five years.

The last time numbers were so low in East Lancashire was during the 1999/2000 financial year, when 310 operations were cancelled.

Health chiefs today hailed the figures prompted by new working practices but said a controversial shake-up of all services must still go ahead to slash cancellations even more.

The reduction comes as figures from the Department of Health show the cancelled operations crisis which gripped England's hospitals in the last five years is beginning to subside.

In 1996/97 just 52,047 procedures were put back. But this rose to 81,743 in 2001/02 before falling to 68,576 last year. This year's final figure is expected to be between 60,000 and 65,000.

Ruth Gildert, head of patients' experience for East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, today said: "We are really pleased that we are providing a better service for our patients and it is hopefully an indication that new ways of working are beginning to pay dividends."

These "new ways of working" included improved communication between specialties, close scrutiny on whether people can be discharged sooner to free up beds and making sure theatres are not left empty, she said.

Mrs Gildert said: "Having an operation cancelled is absolutely devastating for patients and is something we would never do lightly. We always look at clinical need and factors such as how long they have been waiting and whether they have had that operation cancelled before."

She said cancellations would fall even further once major changes to hospital services took place in the next three years.

Blackburn Queen's Park Hospital is to take on more serious emergencies while Burnley General Hospital will take on more pre-planned operations.

This, she said, would mean that fewer beds earmarked for operations would be taken up by emergency patients who needed them more.

Yet the number of people who did not get their operation re-booked within 28 days of their procedure being cancelled had to improve, she said. The figures show this increased from five to seven per cent this year, even though fewer operations are being cancelled.

John Amos, vice chairman of the Patient and Public Involvement Forum which oversees the Trust, said: "It is good news. People do not expect their operation to be cancelled."

Other trusts fare much worse than East Lancashire. The heavily in-debt Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust gets the same level of Government funding but had to cancel 291 operations between October and December compared to 118 in East Lancashire.