HOSPITAL outpatient services are to be improved following a £180,000 cash injection.

The money will be spent on new facilities to reduce the amount of time patients spend in hospital before and after operations.

Northallerton's Friarage Hospital won the cash in a successful bid to the regional health authority as part of a scheme to reduce outpatient waiting times, cut waiting times and reduce the need for patients to go to hospital a second time.

Steve Jamieson, general manager for the diagnostic and surgical division, said about £100,000 would be spent on developing existing facilities, including a new assessment suite.

He said: "This is an opportunity to further improve facilities. Instead of bringing patients in the day before an operation, it will mean we can invite them to outpatients to undergo a pre-operative assessment."

He said pre-operative asse-ssments currently covered gynaecology, major and minor orthopaedic surgery and minor urology.

But the new suite would extend the assessments to take in all general surgery and should be up and running by the end of March 2001.

The assessments also aim to reduce the cancellation rate for operations, allow more time for patients to talk with staff about their operations and reduce the average length of stay in hospital following surgery.