Health chiefs in Bradford have pledged that patients requiring hospital treatment are being treated as quickly as possible and not being forced to wait in order to cut costs.

NHS Airedale, Bradford and Leeds yesterday made the announcement after the Government warned that NHS primary care trusts are to be banned from setting minimum waiting times and rationing certain treatments.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said the cost-cutting methods would be banned from the end of March with Primary Care Trust bosses potentially facing the sack if they breached the new rules.

The move follows an investigation earlier this year which found waiting times were being deliberately extended in some areas so that patients would go private or die before they were seen, to slash costs.

The study by the the Co-operation and Competition Panel, commissioned by ministers, also uncovered arbitrary spending caps that meant patients were denied treatments such as hip replacements and cataract removals.

For more on this story, see today's T&A