HEALTH minister and Bury South MP Ivan Lewis has branded waiting times for hearing services as "outrageous".

Mr Lewis said he was issuing guidance to hospitals on how they could cut waits and treat thousands of extra patients before December 2008.

The Government wants to slash waiting times for hearing patients to just 18 weeks by December next year.

Mr Lewis said of the current waits: "It's outrageous, not acceptable and shouldn't be tolerated."

While he did not say if extra money would be pumped into the NHS to cut the waiting times, he said any hospital needing more money to implement changes would be able to access extra resources.