Cancer patients are being forced to wait up to 12 weeks for radiotherapy due to staff shortages at Oxford's Churchill Hospital.

More than a quarter of radiographer positions are vacant at the hospital in Headington.

Senior workers' time is also being consumed as they train newly-qualified colleagues. As a result, patients with all types of cancer are waiting an average of three months for often life-saving treatment.

And people with breast cancer, who should be treated within four weeks of initial surgery, are waiting up to 15 weeks for radiotherapy appointments. Radiographers are qualified workers who operate X-ray equipment -- to diagnose patients -- and radiotherapy equipment -- to treat patients with cancer.

Julie Smith, the radiotherapy planning superintendent, said: "There is a shortage of radiographers everywhere, but, because radiotherapy is so specialised, we are even worse off.

"Patients who are very urgent we have to fit in, but people who have already had surgery have to wait a lot longer than the national guidelines.

"We should have 30 radiographers, but there are 22. And because we have an imbalance of newly-qualified staff and not a lot of seniors, it means we have to spend a lot of time training up new staff. "We've had a lot of open days to try to recruit staff, but many people retire or leave -- mainly because of the stresses of working in the NHS."

Ms Smith said there were similar shortages in Oxfordshire's diagnostic radiography, including X-ray and scanning departments.

Last month, the Oxford Mail reported delays in breast cancer screening because of a shortage of radiologists -- the doctors who interpret X-rays and scans. There is, however, a full complement of radiography staff at the unit, which offers three-yearly mammograms to Oxfordshire's 47,600 50 to 64-year-old women.

A spokesman for the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust said breast screening would come under pressure again by the end of the year, when 65 to 70-year-old women become entitled to regular check-ups.