Health bosses at a top-rated hospital have taken action to reduce the waiting time for patients needing scans - which in many cases is more than a year.

Airedale NHS Trust is to double the number of MRI scanning sessions at Airedale General Hospital from three half-days to three full days. Use of the CT scan is also to be increased by a third with three extra evening sessions, and the Trust is recruiting another radiographer to deal with the workload.

The increased sessions in the £2.6 million x-ray department will start in mid-November. But the Trust still has not enough cash to have the state-of-the-art machines operating all week.

Patients are having to wait between 56 and 60 weeks for a routine CT scan and up to 63 weeks for a routine MRI session.

The improvements are being financed with £100,000 from Airedale Primary Care Trust and £40,000 from the Yorkshire Cancer Network. Talks are to be held next week with Craven, Harrogate & Rural District Primary Care Trust about supplying extra funding.

Janet Crouch, Airedale NHS Trust's chief executive, said: "It is disappointing that not all our patients will benefit from these reduced waiting times. Craven, Harrogate & Rural District Primary Care Trust has not yet contributed, creating a differential in treating patients according to area."

Bill Redlin, of Craven, Harrogate & Rural District Primary Care Trust, said it had been agreed in principle to provide more funding to ensure people from Craven could be treated more quickly, but the Trust had been waiting four weeks for waiting time information from Airedale.

"Once they supply us with the information we can decide what extra investment to put into this important service," he said.