A mammoth effort to whittle down Southend Hospital's waiting lists by more than 3,500 has paid off.

Faced with the daunting prospect of reducing the number of patients waiting from 13,050 last April to 9,481 by today, the hospital was forced to pull out all the stops.

The Government had decreed that hospitals should get lists down to the same number as they were two years ago.

As well as building a new operating theatre in four months, Southend introduced weekend and evening surgery for routine patients, and using private hospital facilities for patients needing cataract surgery.

The hospital was helped by an allocation of just under £3 million from the Government's waiting list fund which, as well as expanding facilities, allowed Southend to recruit additional clinical staff.

Andrew Pike, director of operations and service development, said the hospital was almost thrown off course by a huge surge in emergency admissions around Christmas. But good planning and willing staff had put them back on target.

He added: "The winter pressures cost us £300,000 more than we had hoped. That was the price we paid for the high number of emergencies over Christmas which stopped us doing as much elective work as we wanted."

The hospital now faces the challenge of reducing the waiting list total by another 700 by March 2000.

Hospital chairman, Mike Brookes, paid tribute to staff, whose hard work and dedication had achieved an almost 30 per cent reduction in the overall waiting list.

He said: "It has been an enormous challenge and I would like to thank them all for such an incredible year's work."

Basildon Hospital's March figures are not yet available, but by the end of February more than 800 patients had been taken off the waiting list, leaving it at 4,317.

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