PATIENTS have slightly longer waits for National Health Service operations in Swindon than other parts of the country, according to new Government figures.

Department of Health statistics revealed 50 per cent of people dealt with by Swindon Primary Care Trust (PCT) get a slot in hospital within three months of diagnosis.

This lags just behind the nationwide average of 54 per cent.

But none of the 4,426 people dealt with so far this year by the PCT have had to wait longer than 11 months, according to figures for ordinary and day case admissions.

And no patient has waited longer than the nine-month benchmark time for inpatient treatment of coronary heart disease. In other health authorities, some patients have been forced to endure delays longer than one-and-a-half years for operations. And the figures also showed that Swindon PCT has been dealing with 80 per cent of all patients in less than five months.

Swindon's Great Western Hospital spokesman Chris Birdsall said: "We are very pleased that we are continuing to meet the Government's waiting list targets.

"We have no one waiting over 12 months for elective in-patient or day case surgery and no one waiting over nine months for in-patient coronary heart disease. We have had a very busy year this year and had we not had such great pressure on beds we believe our waiting list figures would have been even better.

"The good news is next month we open a new 36-bed ward which should have a positive impact on those bed pressures."

Health Minister John Hutton said: "These figures show that the NHS is continuing to make progress to reduce waiting times for patients."