HOSPITAL doctors have been banned from driving down operation waiting lists by doing overtime because bosses say they can't afford it.

Consultants have been told they will no longer be paid extra for coming in at evenings and weekends to complete surgery raising fears that waiting times will rocket.

The move is part of a £3.3million savings programme which will see 278 beds axed, mostly by September, and operating sessions cut to save cash.

Bosses today insisted patient care would not suffer as patients could be seen during regular working hours.

But critics, including a leading doctor, said the cash-saving drive could mean an increase in waiting lists.

Nurses will also be redeployed to other departments if they are no longer needed to staff beds within their specialism a move which could see them leave to work at other hospitals, a union leader warned.

East Lancashire Hospitals Trust today released details of where the £3.3million savings would be found in a bid to avoid job losses and service cuts with £2.5million coming from bed cuts.

A total of £800,000 will be saved on changes to how operating theatres are used.

l A ban on a consultants in up to 12 specialties taking overtime, expected to save £100,000.

l Axing two days a week of "under utilised" theatre sessions for gynaecology patients at Blackburn Royal Infirmary and Burnley General.

l Moving day surgery at Rossendale Hospital, as revealed in the Evening Telegraph in April, to Burnley General.

l Stopping consultants spending a day performing endoscopy tests, where a camera is inserted in the mouth, at the Infirmary. This will now be performed by a nurse.

l Having patients who need varicose vein injections seen in a clinic instead of a theatre to free up operating slots.

In the last four months of 2005, 3,953 East Lancashire people were waiting more than a month for an operation but nobody was waiting longer than the Government target of six months Tim Ellis, spokesman for medical union Unison, said: "We are worried that this ban on overtime will push up waiting lists. The priority until now has been to reduce waiting times now it is to balance the books. That can't be good for healthcare. Staff are very worried."

Caroline Collins, Lancashire spokeswoman for the Royal College of Nursing union, said: "This is bound to impact on waiting lists.

"Jobs are effectively going. Nurses want to stay in their field and the worry is they will move to another trust to develop their expertise."

Dr Jonathan Fielden, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association's central consultants and specialists committee, said: "Absorbing that amount of patients into daytime lists either indicates that they were poorly managed previously or there will be an overall reduction in capacity which inevitably will impact on the speed of patient care."

Bosses have to spend £11.6million less by next April but have said other NHS trusts must bail them out over a further £11.7 million shortfall.

Trust chief executive Jo Cubbon said the authority faced a "huge financial challenge".

She said: "I fully appreciate the concerns but we have been working hard to make sure we can work more efficiently without reducing the number of patients we treat or reducing the quality of the care and treatment we provide."

Managers could do this by "reducing the length of hospital stay and removing unnecessary delays", she said.

A trust spokesman said staff would continue to work within their division either medical, surgery or women's, children and diagnostics but said this "inevitably" meant some staff could have to work away from their native Blackburn or Burnley.