TWO new multi-million-pound projects to slash hospital waiting times across southern Hampshire look set to receive the green light.

Health chiefs in Southampton and Winchester have agreed initial proposals to create two linked Diagnosis and Treatment Centres (DTC) in the cities, in a bid to drive down patient waiting times and meet tough new government targets.

Costing between them more than £11m, the centres at the Royal South Hants Hospital in Southampton and the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester will offer patients fast, easy day surgery, with no one waiting for more than six months for treatment from December 2004.

Patients should also be able to book in their own dates for surgery rather than relying on the pot-luck hospitals are only able to offer at present.