A Chelmsford MP has protested to Health Secretary Frank Dobson after it was revealed hospital waiting lists in mid-Essex have shot up in the past two years.

Figures released by Simon Burns , the Tory MP for West Chelmsford, show that the number of patients waiting more than a year for treatment is ten times more than in 1997.

He said that on March 31, 1997, some 104 people were waiting 12 months or more for hospital treatment and 555 were waiting 13 weeks or more to see a consultant before even getting onto a waiting list for treatment.

But the latest figures show that 1,194 people are currently waiting 12 months or more and the number of patients waiting 13 weeks or more has shot up to 1,937.

Mr Burns said he was "appalled and dismayed" at the situation.

A spokesman for Mid Essex Hospital Trust said that it believed the numbers were coming down.

"The Trust has always made it clear that reducing waiting lists was a challenging target.

"In the year before June 1998 the lists were growing inexorably.

"Our first challenge has been to halt the growth which we have successfully achieved."

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