HOSPITALS across Hampshire are winning the battle to bring down waiting lists.

Staff are throwing their full weight behind the Daily Echo's You Can Help Your NHS campaign which aims to save £500,000 of wasted health service cash, as latest figures show.

But despite the wonders being performed by doctors, nurses and managers, the public still needs to do their bit.

Our campaign is supported by Prime Minister Tony Blair and Health Minister Alan Milburn and aims to save thousands of pounds currently being wasted by thoughtless members of the public.

Some £3.5m was lost in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight last year when 75,000 people failed to turn up for appointments.

Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust lost £9,295 when 75 per cent of people kept walking frames and 50 per cent of those loaned crutches and walking frames did not take them back.

Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust has been plagued by waiting list problems for months, but managed to achieve its government target of having no patients waiting more than 26 weeks for orthopaedic treatment.

The trust has now proved it can keep up with these targets.

In the last month, the number of patients on the in-patient and day case waiting list decreased by 156 to 13,479. This figure is 36 lower than the trust's target.

The number of patients waiting more than 15 months is still at a target of zero and the number of outpatients waiting more than 13 weeks is 641. In February the figure was 1,264.

Simon Jupp, head of patient access for the trust, said: "It needs to be a joint partnership. It's the same issues again. It's about patients informing us if they can't make it.

"We don't mind people phoning back to say they can't make that appointment, it's the not telling us which is the crippling thing. If we knew in advance we could put other people in those slots."