DEEPER still goes the hospital waiting lists plight in East Lancashire as patients head for 18-month waits for operations and a funding crisis threatens cuts.

Health bosses are not be envied the tough choices they face.

But this is symptomatic of a growing problem throughout the NHS and Labour embarrassed by its own unfulfilled election pledges to cut waiting lists finds the problem harder to cure in government than it is to complain about in opposition.

Yet, what is evident that more resources are urgently needed for hospitals to reduce the waiting lists and the patient misery that goes with them - and far sooner than the boost that usually comes when there is an election in the offing.

Indeed, Chancellor Gordon Brown will have to deliver some help for the NHS in this month's Budget if the government is not to suffer a sharp attack of voter anger.

Previous news story

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.