A one-stop-shop to reduce waiting times at an Oxford hospital has been put on hold due to funding cuts.

Managers at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, in Headington, were due to install a second magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner, costing more than £1m.

But a £200,000 cut in funding from Oxfordshire's primary care trusts and the withdrawal of £500,000 of Government money has forced them to postpone the project.

At the moment, patients often experience long delays for diagnostic scans, even though their first consultant appointment is within the maximum 17-week wait.

They often visit the hospital three times, to see their doctor, have their scan, and revisit the consultant to learn the results.

Doubling the number of MRI machines would mean patients could have scans while seeing their doctor, as well as returning to them later in the day with their results.

Mr Macalister-Smith said: "Executive directors are extremely concerned at the need to hold up this project, because of the clearly established need for the new machine.

"Without this MRI, waiting times are going to drift out. We were moving towards same-day clinics, but this is now going to have to be put on hold."

Although outpatient and inpatient appointments are within waiting time targets, diagnostic work in between, including MRI scans and X-rays, used to take up to 40 weeks to organise. Now the delays are down to two months.

Mr Macalister-Smith said: "We're doing all we can to put the MRI contract back together again, because we desperately need it."

The NOC is now appealing to Thames Valley Health Authority for more money.

An authority spokesman said: "Over the next few weeks we'll be carefully weighing up all the bids for a share of this money across the three counties and expect to be in a position to make an announcement on how the money will be spent by mid-summer, once it has board approval."