Airedale Hospital is sending hundreds of women patients who need breast X-Rays to Bradford whilst it looks for a new radiology specialist.

The hospital is moving women who need breast diagnosis to St Luke's Hospital in Bradford as it seeks to employ a replacement for Dr Clive Orgles.

In the meantime the treatment and care of patients with breast related conditions will continue at Airedale.

Due to a shortage of consultants in the field of breast diagnosis, members of the trust board are uncertain as to how long it will take to fill the vacancy it has already advertised.

It is believed the 28-mil round trips to St Lukes may last for months. About 1,500 women a year from the Airedale district are referred by their GPs for urgent checks after discovering lumps in their breast.

Government targets sya these patients have to be seen within two weeks of a GP referral - so Airedale's service cannot continue.

Airdale Chief executive Bob Allen said: "We hope the situation will change and we hope to appoint a consultant of out own but this isn't a speciality that is popular and it's no way guaranteed that we'll be able to recruit.

"Surgeons are travelling to St Luke's and they are bringing pathology specimens back here. It's not ideal, but it's a very reasonable stop-gap measure."

Dr Paul Godwin said: "There is no immediate answer to this shortage and we aren't the only trust who can't recruit. People don't like doing breast radiology because of litigation and the intrinsic difficulty of the process.

"We are committed to providing the service locally as there are 1500 women with symptoms of breast diseases each year and we are addressing that and how we can address that in the future.

"We are taking months rather than weeks to get the high quality services we need."

Non-executive director Vanessa Moore asked if a locum consultant could be installed in the post as a temporary measure.

Dr Godwin added that locum's specialise in this clinical area just don't exist.

Mr Allen added: "Great thanks must go to Bradford Hospitals Trust for making our staff welcome and providing a good quality of service."

John Godward, chief officer with watchdog Airedale Community Health Council says: "Our members did a visit to the breast clinic a fortnight ago and what we are recommending is that the service be returned to Airedale Hospital as quickly as possible.

"We appreciate the difficulty in finding someone suitable for the post but even so we expect all the stops to be pulled out to ensure the service returns in as short time as possible."

Katheryn Dyer, secretary of Airedale Cancer Support Group, says that in the first week of the switch to St Luke's there have been no problems reported by patients travelling to Bradford. She adds: "The group will provide support for anyone who is anxious about going down to St Luke's or needs transport there."

Airedale Cancer Support Group can be contacted on 01535 292758.