EAST Lancashire hospitals are to be boosted by the arrival of 74 new doctors after European legislation slashed working hours for existing staff.

The new appointments, brought in at a cost of £2.2million, mean the number of training grade doctors in the

area has jumped by a third.

Hospitals across the country were left facing a staffing crisis after the European Working Directive - which came into force this month - limited junior doctors to working 58 hours a week.

That figure will fall to 48 hours from August 2009, effectively cutting 213,000 hours across the NHS - the equivalent of 3,700 doctors.

Today, Mollie Manthorpe, chairman of the East Lancashire Hospitals Trust Patients Forum, said: "This is very welcome news for patients and will hope to alleviate some of the problems we have experienced in this area with waiting lists."

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust - which oversees hospitals in Blackburn, Hyndburn, Ribble Valley, Burnley, Rossendale and Pendle - has also brought in a number of new measures to solve the problem.

They include extending the role of other health professionals, such as nurses, to undertake tasks like requesting X-rays and ordering diagnostic tests.

The 74 doctors - 42 specialist registrars and 32 Senior House Officer (SHO) equivalent grades - have all started work since last August and are evenly spread across virtually all specialities in hospitals across East Lancashire.

The funding for the additional posts has come from the Postgraduate Dean for the North West, who has joint responsibility for the training of junior doctors, the Lancashire and Cumbria Strategic Health Authority and the East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust.

The new measures have been co-ordinated by Mark Hulme, Consultant Nurse in A&E at Blackburn Royal Infirmary, who developed the policy with other key clinical staff.

Enabling nurses to request X-rays is expected to bring about great benefits for patients including shorter waiting times and a streamlining of the patient's journey through hospital treatment.

Elaine Baker, director of personnel and development, East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "In meeting the requirements of the Working Time Directive the Trust has achieved both working hours and rest requirements for training grade doctors whilst continuing to provide high quality patient care."

Nigel Evans, MP for Ribble Valley, said: "I am happy that junior doctors will be working less hours but this is something that should have been introduced a long time ago with better planning."