Patients at an Oxford hospital are waiting almost five months for vital scans to check for illnesses affecting the brain and spine.

NHS managers are aiming to drastically reduce the delays for magnetic resonance imaging scans at the Radcliffe Infirmary, in Woodstock Road, by nearly 80 per cent, so people who need tests only wait a maximum of four weeks.

To do this they are recruiting extra staff, bringing in mobile scanners and offering evening appointments at other hospitals.

They said urgent patients got priority, to make sure that they were not put at risk by life-threatening illness.

Last year, more than 4,500 people with suspected neurological conditions were referred for MRI scans at the RI, to help doctors pinpoint problems.

Unlike normal X-rays, the equipment is able to produce colour images of the body, which can be used to diagnose a range of conditions, including tumours and multiple sclerosis, but most patients are forced to wait up to 19 weeks for scans.

Linda Soderberg, directorate manager of radiological sciences, said: "If the doctor says this patient needs a scan within a week then it's done, and high-risk cases are obviously picked up. But we're not complacent, and we need to get the waiting times down.

"We've seen an increase in activity in the past year. On top of that, last year we installed a new scanner, and that has meant we can get a lot more out of it, but it takes longer to see each patient, so it's like a double whammy for us."

Although not all patients have scans to test for cancer, a new Government target being introduced in October means patients suspected of having the disease will have to be treated within 62 days of being referred to hospital. To make sure the RI hits the target, scans need to be quicker.

The Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the RI, is appointing more consultants to oversee a mobile MRI scanner, which will come once a week from June, and twice a week once extra doctors are available.

More radiographers will be recruited to run the scanner at the Churchill Hospital in the evenings to check RI patients.