PRINCESS Margaret Hospital is to receive more than £90,000 in cash to help its A&E department recruit more nurses and carry out restructuring.

The hospital will receive £17,942 and then a further £73,561 in the new year.

The cash forms part of the Government's £100 million strategy for reducing long waiting lists in A&E departments and cancelled operations announced by Health Secretary Alan Milburn last month.

Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust spokesman Chris Birdsall said: "Anything which means that we can increase staffing levels in what is a very busy department has got to be a good thing.

"The money equates to two specialist nurses to work in the department. We are keen to hear from any suitably qualified nurses interested in working here."

Hospitals in the South West region will share £2.3m in total for additional A&E nurses and to support the Government's emergency care strategy and £3.9m in 2001/2 to allow patients to be treated in private hospitals, in order to reduce the numbers of people using NHS beds.

The additional nurses are needed to help implement plans to introduce streaming in A&E departments which have been tasked with patient waiting targets of no more than four hours in A&E from arrival to admission, transfer or departure.

In announcing the funding, Health Secretary Alan Milburn said: "Waiting is the public's number one concern about the NHS. We are determined to tackle waiting in A&E, whether that's waiting to be seen by a doctor or waiting to be admitted on a trolley.

"I am delighted that patients in the South West will benefit from £6.1 million of extra investment to get more operations done, more NHS patients treated and free up more NHS beds.

"Investment on its own is not enough. We are already taking action to tackle bed-blocking, train and recruit more NHS staff, use spare capacity in private hospitals and increase the number of available beds in NHS hospitals. The next step in cutting waits in A&E is reform of A&E.

"Change takes time but we can make real strides over the next few years to dramatically reduce the wait in A&E and eliminate long trolley waits altogether."