Hospital waiting lists for patients in the Bradford district rose last month but health chiefs remain confident a massive reduction in lists and waiting times will be achieved by the spring.

A board meeting of Bradford Health Authority was yesterday told that waiting lists for non-urgent in-patient hospital treatment stood at 12,152 in October, up 77 on the month before.

The total is still 300 above the level last year and 1,250 above a target set by ministers which must be achieved by the end of March to reduce waiting lists below the level at the General Election.

In addition, the number of people waiting more than a year for treatment has risen by 40 to 564 but is considerably below the 1,000-plus waiting for more than 12 months in December last year.

The increases have been blamed on illness among key consultants at Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke's Hospital, and at Leeds hospitals.

Director of performance manager Ann Wagner said the hospitals had been ahead of their planned reduction in waiting lists and were still on course to meet the spring target.

"There has been some slippage in the system but it is nothing to be concerned about," she said.

"I am confident we will hit the target."

l Health chiefs agreed to provisionally give the go-ahead for two new drug treatments to be given to patients at a total cost of £300,000 a year but ordered a detailed analysis of the implications.

HIV patients are set to be prescribed a combination therapy of drugs which has been shown to halve annual death rates.

Women with ovarian and secondary breast cancer may in some cases now be given taxanes which evidence shows can prolong life by several months.

The decisions are the first made by a district group of experts based on recommendations by a Yorkshire-wide group of health authorities which reviews new drugs.

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