PATIENTS needing cataract and glaucoma operations at Whipps Cross Hospital are finding that waiting times have been cut by half.

This means that waiting times will now be a maximum of six months, rather than a year as was the case before.

Whipps Cross University Hospital Trust has said that it plans to get the waiting time down to three months by April.

This has come about thanks to new time-saving techniques used by the hospital's ophthalmology department.

Director of service development Jon Findlay,said: "The department has been holding regular 'blitz' sessions at weekends to reduce waiting times, with extra theatre lists and staff working extra shifts.

"Patient lists have been streamlined and grouped as like for like operations together to ensure that the most number of patients as possible are seen at one time."

Leyton MP Harry Cohen has given his support, saying it was a "result".

Last year Mr Cohen wrote to local health chiefs expressing his concerns about the unsatisfactory waiting times.

Mr Cohen praised all those involved at the trust for their success in getting patients treated much faster.

He said: "Like myself, they have been focused in getting an improvement in eyesight treatment locally."