Shocked Malcolm Hall could hardly believe his eyes when he opened a letter giving him a hospital appointment with a top Bradford specialist - in May 2001!

Mr Hall, 60, was referred for an outpatient appointment with consultant orthopaedic surgeon Steve Bollen at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

But he was told he would have to wait 115 weeks for an assessment of his arthritic knees and hips which could need replacing.

Now following a new referral by his GP to another consultant he has been offered an appointment in just five weeks.

Latest figures from December show there were 462 people from the Bradford district who had waited more than six months for hospital outpatient appointments.

This was in breach of the patient charter target which states all patients should be seen within 26 weeks.

Mr Hall said he had been shocked by the length of wait to see Mr Bollen, who has a national reputation for his expert work in the field.

Action was needed to reduce the length of the waiting list not just for him but other people.

He had been forced to give up work because of his condition and could only walk with crutches.

"I couldn't believe it when I found out, it's ridiculous," he said. "I'm in constant pain which is terrible.

"Replacements could ease the pain but without talking to the specialist and getting it sorted out with them I won't know."

Rose Stephens, director of patient care at Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust, said there were eight orthopaedic surgeons based in Bradford each with a special interest, which meant some had longer waiting lists than others. Efforts were being made to equalise the waiting list but demand exceeded supply in the speciality.

Ann Wagner, director of performance management at Bradford Health Authority, said the authority this year had for the first time been set targets for reducing outpatient waiting times on top of existing tough targets for inpatients.

Plans would be agreed to reduce the number of people waiting more than 13 weeks by more than 900 patients in the coming year.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.