waiting list targets Managers at Oxford's hospitals have succeeded in combating long outpatient lists so that no-one is waiting more than 12 months to see a consultant.

The news means they have beaten Government targets -- to be brought in next year -- stating that all patients must be seen within a year.

Of those needing a consultant's appointment, 1,219 will still have to wait more than 13 weeks.

But staff at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, which covers Oxford's John Radcliffe, Churchill, and Radcliffe Infirmary, and The Horton, Banbury, claim most of them will have a consultation within the next six months.

ORH managers have worked hard to bring down waiting times since last summer, when about 100 people were waiting more than a year and a quarter. Performance director Andrew Stevens said: "We've set up additional clinics and appointed new doctors and nurses to do a lot of weekend and evening clinics.

"It's something we were giving consideration to -- to work on a 24-hour-a-day basis.

"We are also doing better at making sure that once all the urgent patients are dealt with, those left are called in turn, so those who have waited longest have the first appointments.

"We're also sharing outpatient slots between consultants. If one has a particularly long list of patients some will be seen by the consultant with a shorter list." Improvements have also been made at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, where no patients waiting for an outpatient appointment will be delayed more than 15 months.

New Government targets, launched at the beginning of April, meant that no hospital could allow patients to wait longer than 15 months after being referred to a hospital doctor.