HIT squads have been brought in to shake up Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust's management of shocking waiting list figures.

The National Patient Access Team will provide sustained and intensive support to bring down inpatient and outpatient waiting lists.

The waiting list situation is particularly sensitive in Wyre Forest because figures released last month showed district patients were being kept on the lists at the expense of Worcester and Redditch folk.

The figures showed Wyre Forest waiting lists, which trounced the rest of the county last year, have rocketed since Kidderminster NHS Trust merged with Worcester and Redditch in April.

And district doctors, hospital campaigners and Wyre Forest MP David Lock laid the blame firmly at the door of the trust for its policy of pushing patients from other areas - with previously poor lists - ahead of Wyre Forest folk in the queue in an attempt to balance figures across the county.

Health minister Yvette Cooper said the drafting of the NPAT into Worcestershire was not an indictment of the trust's management.

She said: "This is a specialist team working with trusts across the country to bring down waiting lists.

"We have the NPAT in several areas at the moment."

However, Wyre Forest MP David Lock was more direct.

He said: "I've been very critical of some aspects of the way changes have been implemented but I welcome this investment of expertise from outside that will drive up the quality of management in the county.

"This will ensure the quality of care people get and I hope it will solve some of the problems about which I've been so critical."