People with suspected heart disease will receive quicker treatment and patients with kidney failure will get dialysis nearer to home as part of improved health services.

And cancer patients will not have to wait as long for diagnosis, health bosses in the Craven area have pledged.

A new rapid access service for patients with chest pains is to be set up in Airedale General Hospital at Steeton.

It will mean the hospital recruiting another consultant to enable patients suspected of heart problems to receive tests within two weeks.

More renal dialysis machines are also to be set up at Skipton hospital so that kidney patients do not have to travel to Bradford for treatment.

The improvements are part of a package to be introduced over the next three years by Craven, Harrogate and Rural District Primary Care Trust.

The Trust's Local Delivery Plan - a document outlining how the PCT will deliver Government key priorities - will be discussed at a meeting on Tuesday in Ripon.

The plan also includes moves to deliver more chemotherapy treatment locally for cancer patients. At present they travel to Leeds.

And the ambulance service is to be improved for Craven residents along with services for carers and for patients suffering from mental illness, who will get more care in their own homes.

Penny Jones, PCT chief executive, said: "A great deal of work has gone into the LDP document, which looks at where we are now and how we can improve services to deliver the national priorities.

"We have identified the needs of older people, the rural ambulance service and renal dialysis as three areas where we want to see real improvements. Delivering these improvements will be a real challenge."

The LDP would run until March 2006 and focus on 11 key areas of health care.

Meanwhile, Addingham is to get a new state-of-the-art health centre.

Instead of a single permanent doctor in the village surgery, there will be at least two doctors in the new centre with associated nurses, midwives, pharmacy, chiropody and other primary health care services.

"This is perhaps the most important development for the village since the building of the bypass," said Parish Council chairman Gordon Campbell.