AVERAGE waiting times for treatment in Worcestershire have risen by almost a third since Labour came to power - despite the longest waits being brought down to six months.

County health chiefs predicted last month that no patient would have to wait more than six months for operations from March.

But latest figures from the Department of Health show that the overall waiting times have risen from 100.7 days in 1997/98 to 131.1 days in 2003/04.

The statistics suggest that massive reductions in the longest waits - in excess of 18 months - have been achieved at the expense of longer waits for traditionally more readily-available treatments.

Worcester MP Michael Foster, who obtained the figures in a Parliamentary written question, said that there had also been a "transformation" in NHS waiting lists in the last year.

The latest average waiting time figures produced by the Department of Health only cover the period up to April 2004, at which point there had been 377 waits of more than 18 months in the previous year.

Mr Foster said: "Between the figures in this answer and where we are now, the level of activity has increased and more operations are being performed.

"Without doubt, the figures show there's still a long way to go in terms of the health service.

"But the most recent developments, bringing down the longest waits to under six months, will clearly have an effect on the average waiting times as well."

Mid-Worcestershire MP Peter Luff wrote to Health Secretary John Reid last week to complain about the shortage of capacity in the county, following appeals to GPs not to send patients to Worcestershire Royal Hospital (left).

He said: "The simple fact is that the Government made a huge blunder when it built Worcester's hospital too small and took too many services away from Kidderminster."