HEALTH bosses today insisted East Lancashire needs a third £400,000 MRI scanner to drive down waiting lists two years after delivery of the last one.

The machine, which detects life-threatening conditions such as cancer, would cost thousands of pounds more in staffing.

But bosses say a new machine, based at Accrington Victoria Hospital, is needed to bring down the waiting list which has run as high as 16 weeks for scans for patients across the area.

A new £1.25million MRI scanner, paid for by Lottery cash, was introduced at Burnley General Hospital in 2004.

And the area's first scanner, at Blackburn Infirmary, is due to be replaced when the Royal Blackburn super hospital is opened in July.

The two machines in East Lancashire see about 6,500 people a year.

Yet Hyndburn and Ribble Valley PCT is to ask the Government for the cash for a third and is confident of success.

PCT chief executive Mark Wilkinson said the existing set-up had cut waiting times. But he added the scanner was vital to hit the NHS target of getting every patient treated within 18 weeks of first seeing their GP.

However, Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans said: "It shows the huge crisis that faces the NHS with the fact the PCT has said it wants a scanner. Waiting four months is unacceptable.

"The trust needs to work out whether it has underestimated demand and, if that is the case, what else has it underestimated?"

Coun Gordon Birtwistle, who was Mayor of Burnley when the town's scanner was unveiled in February 2004, said: "We are disappointed it doesn't seem to have brought waiting times down. People are not prepared to wait 16 weeks." John Amos, vice-chairman of the Patient and Public Involvement Forum watchdog which oversees the hospitals trust, said: "I am keen to find out what is going on at Blackburn and Burnley and whether scanners are being put to maximum use."

Former Burnley MP Peter Pike, who was MP when the scanner arrived, said: "I hoped the scanner would be enough but it is one of the problems of the NHS. The more it is able to do you build up more demand."

Waiting times have fallen for scans. In December patients faced a wait of 20 weeks. Figures for March, show one person waiting 16 weeks. Bosses said the maximum waiting time had now fallen to 10 to 11 weeks.

At the launch of the Burnley scanner, David Chew, chief executive of the now defunct Burnley Healthcare NHS Trust, which merged to form the new trust, said "with growing demand it gives some slack for patients to be seen earlier."

Today Mr Wilkinson said: "I am sure we need additional diagnostic facilities to hit the 18-week target." While scanners at Blackburn and Burnley were "well used", emergency patients were causing delays, he said.

He added: "The proposal is in its early stages. Further work is required particularly in the areas of identifying sufficient demand."

Alex Shepherd, Radiology services manager at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "The trust has worked hard to reduce waiting times which in 2005 rose to a maximum of 30 weeks and now stand at 10-11 weeks.

"We are working with the PCT to better understand how their plans to develop MRI facilities at Accrington Victoria Hospital fit within the wider picture."