AN acute shortage of radiographers has forced a North-East cancer unit to turn to agency staff to keep waiting times down.

Bosses at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough decided to hire staff from an agency after shortages meant only three out of four radiotherapy machines could be used.

With one of the Teesside trust's million-pound linear accelerators lying idle average waiting times for cancer treatment rose to 10 weeks.

But once the four agency radiographers were in post the cancer unit was able to reduce average waiting times for radiotherapy to around four weeks.

The NHS has been criticised for its increasing reliance on expensive agency staff, including nurses.

Earlier this week a study by the Society of Radiographers showed that in some parts of the country cancer patients are being made to wait months for vital radiotherapy treatment because of shortages of staff and equipment.

Because the shortage of radiographers shows no sign of easing the Middlesbrough trust plans to work more closely with North-East training schools in Newcastle as well as joining the national radiographer recruitment campaign.

The trust is also looking at ways to break down barriers between radiographers and nurses in terms of their traditional duties.

There is also a plan to create specialist radiographers who can take on some of the work normally done by consultants.

Clinical director of radiotherapy and oncology at the James Cook University Hospital Dr Peter Dunlop said: "Because of staff shortages we had to close down one of our four linear accelerators and our average waiting time for radiotherapy at The James Cook University Hospital rose to around 10 weeks. This has been a concern for us and meant we could not offer patients the service we know they deserve.

"However we have employed four agency radiographers and been able to reopen our fourth linear accelerator. Our average waiting time for radiotherapy has now reduced to around four weeks.

"We are also building a fifth bunker to house a replacement machine, which means we should be able to keep four machines working, even when we are replacing a machine.

On May 23 Health Secretary Alan Milburn announced that additional scanners used in diagnosing cancers are to be installed in the region in County Durham, Newcastle, South Shields, Scarborough, Harrogate and York.