Doctors and nurses at an Oxford hospital are giving up their weekends to help cut outpatient waiting times.

The Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Headington, has started Saturday clinics to wipe out a backlog of patients and cut appointment delays.

The scheme has been launched by managers to ensure the hospital meets a new Government waiting time target being introduced at the end of the year.

At the moment, all new patients must have their first consultation within 17 weeks of being referred by their GP, but in December the time limit will drop to 13 weeks. Doctors at the NOC specialise in bone and muscle conditions, and receive more than 1,000 new referrals every month.

At the moment, 68 patients have waited longer than 13 weeks for a consultation at the hospital, and the Saturday clinics are expected to reduce the number even further.

Director of nursing and operations, Jan Fowler, said: "The number of outpatients referred by their GP who are waiting more than 13 weeks is reducing, and has been steadily reducing for the last year.

"We would expect to see approximately 8,000 outpatients from GP referrals in a six month period and Saturday clinics will increase this number. "The NOC is determined to meet the Government's new shorter target for waiting times when it is introduced in January 2006.

"We have an excellent team of highly dedicated staff and their efforts will make a huge difference to those patients waiting for appointments."

Saturday clinics are not new in Oxford.

The Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, which oversees Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, Churchill Hospital and Radcliffe Infirmary, and The Horton, Banbury, introduced the scheme in 1999. Since then, outpatient waits have dropped from 26 weeks to less than 13 weeks.

In 2001, a similar scheme was started to reduce delays for operations, and patients at the RI and JR were invited to Saturday surgeries.