Waiting lists for two of Oxford's biggest hospitals have risen in the last quarter - bucking a downward trend across the rest of the country.

Latest national figures show the biggest three-month fall in waiting lists in the 50 years of the NHS over the last quarter - down about 45,000.

Statistics reveal lists to be down by more than 2,300 in the last three months in the Anglia and Oxford region.

But Oxford health bosses are not celebrating as waiting lists for two of their Trusts are on the rise.

Oxfordshire Health Authority figures show that waiting lists for the Radcliffe Infirmary NHS Trust have gone up from the beginning of April from 3,594 to 3,662 at the end of June - an increase of 68.

The waiting lists at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre NHS Trust have risen from 3,303 to 3,340. The Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, for the Churchill Hospital and the John Radcliffe Hospital, has seen a dip in figures for the same period from 4,216 to 4,178 and figures for the Horton Hospital have fallen from 1,404 to 1,384. But the figures, apart from those for the Radcliffe Infirmary, are all substantially higher than last year.

A spokesman for Oxfordshire Health Authority said the picture was not all gloomy.

She said: "All Trusts have plans in place with the health authority to reduce waiting lists and it has only been in the first quarter that these plans have been agreed.

"It is therefore not surprising to see no significant decreases during this period.

"But we are confident that the reductions planned will be achieved by the end of March 1999."

The spokesman added that some Trusts were experiencing reductions and others increases depending on the pressures each was facing.

She said the Radcliffe Infirmary in particular had been concentrating on reductions in the actual time waited rather then the numbers on the lists, which was not reflected in the figures.

She added that the July figures for both the Radcliffe Infirmary and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centres had begun to fall.

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