DELAYS in non-urgent operations and treatment may follow a budget

purge at Western Infirmary and Gartnavel General hospital in Glasgow.

The cutbacks follow an overspend of about #1m on supplies and drugs in

the hospitals, which have applied to become a self-governing trust next

year.

Mr Laurence Peterken, Greater Glasgow Health Board's general manager,

has set up office in Gartnavel to oversee the cutbacks.

Although the staff budget is not overspent, part of the shortfall will

be met by a freeze on recruitment of ''non-essential'' staff, said a

spokesman. Staff within the hospital said overtime and the use of agency

nurses is also being cut back.

Spending on drugs at the Western has risen in recent years following

the introduction of expensive drugs which have transformed the quality

of life of patients undergoing cancer therapy and renal dialysis.

The review is also a dress rehearsal for the kind of financial rigour

the Western may face next year if it becomes a trust.

A health board spokesman said management had decided ''to scrutinise

rigorously expenditure patterns on supplies and recruitment over the

next six months''.

He added there was no question of redundancies or reduction in patient

care. The management expected these measures to put them back on course

in six months.

Mrs Irenee O'Neill, Royal College of Nursing organiser, said: ''Yet

again, we have an iniquitous system of accounting which does not reflect

need; it reflects the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

''As far as the RCN is concerned, the one thing that must not be

affected is the level of patient care and the skill mix providing it.

The treatment of cancer cannot be cost-driven.''