HOSPITAL bosses have revealed that no one in the region is waiting more than three months for heart surgery.

Confirmation that long waits are a thing of the past marks a victory for The Northern Echo's long-running A Chance To Live campaign.

Officials at the James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, which treats heart patients from south Durham, Teesside and North Yorkshire, said no patients were waiting longer than three months for bypass operations, on April 1.

This was echoed by hospital staff at the Freeman Hospital, in Newcastle, which treats heart patients from Tyneside, Wearside and north Durham, where provisional figures showed no-one waiting over three months at the end of last month.

It follows the prediction by the country's heart tsar, Dr Roger Boyle, earlier this month, that the maximum wait for heart patients across England would be three months by the end of last month.

Dr Boyle was a former cardiologist at York General Hospital until he was asked to head a national drive to bring down heart operation waiting times, in 2000.

He told The Northern Echo on March 3: "We have about 800 bypass operations to clear across the country from now until the end of the month and then we will be there. That is fantastic."

A spokeswoman for Northumberland, Tyne and Wear Strategic Health Authority said: "Figures for the end of March are expected to show that our hospitals have delivered the target of no patients waiting three months or over for coronary revascularisation (heart surgery) procedures. This represents excellent progress compared with last year when 100 patients were waiting three months or over for heart surgery procedures."

The Northern Echo campaign was launched six years ago at a time when UK heart patients routinely waited 18 months for heart bypass surgery. It aimed to close the gap between England and western Europe, where heart patients were operated on within three months.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said they only had provisional data at the moment and would have to wait until the national figures could be confirmed later this month.

However, the situation was looking good, she said.

Read more about the Chance to Live campaign here.