WAITING times for GPs and practice nurses have been halved as part of a new approach by doctors' surgeries in Darlington.

Four of the town's 11 surgeries have been involved in the Advanced Access scheme, with five more expected to adopt the system soon.

The new system is also helping to reduce drastically the 20,000 appointments a year that patients fail to attend with either their GP or the nurse.

This costs Darlington taxpayers more than £1m every year.

Surgeries operating the new appointments system have managed to wipe out almost all non-attenders.

Under the conventional system patients can wait up to two weeks for an appointment, by which time they have often recovered.

But many people forget to cancel their appointments and this wastes time and delays apointments for other people.

Surgeries using the new system first analysed the workload to measure the daily demands on staff.

The workload was then divided into new appointments or follow-up consultations.

The data showed that if staff and patients were managed effectively the rising demands could be met.

Practices also drafted a holiday rota so no more than one GP was away from work at any one time.

Nursing hours were increased and advanced appointments were reduced from eight weeks to a maximum of two weeks so patients would not forget them.

Receptionists have also taken on a new role of giving more advice over the telephone and making sure people are in touch with the right place.

Patients can also be offered telephone consultations with doctors and nurses too.

As a result, waiting times have been cut to just 48 hours, patients have a greater chance of seeing the doctor of their choice, staff are reporting reduced stress levels and the non-attenders have virtually disappeared.

Darlington Primary Care Trust's director of primary care, Carole Harder, said the achievements were down to the hard work of practice staff.

She said: "The initiative has taken off really well and Darlington had one of the biggest problems regionally and nationally."