'Hospitals fiddle waiting lists'

Four London hospital trusts are criticised today for deliberately massaging waiting-list figures to meet tough Government targets.

An investigation into "adjustments" to waiting lists made at Bart's and the London, Guy's and St Thomas', Redbridge and University College London trusts found hundreds of patients were forced to wait considerably longer than they should, according to a report published by the National Audit Office (NAO) today.

In some trusts, under pressure to meet key departmental targets, figures appeared to be fiddled deliberately. In other trusts, patients suffered from "organisational failure" as inexperienced junior staff followed incorrect procedures, the investigation found. It looked at a total of nine hospital trusts and found waiting list massaging which was potentially harmful to patients.

The adjustments are a "major breach" of public trust, and "inconsistent with the proper conduct of proper business," the NAO warned. The least serious case was at UCH where the records of just five patients were altered. Among the most serious was Salford Royal where 1,382 patients were affected between September 1998 and July 2001. At Redbridge up to 200 patients were "suspended" from waiting lists for 16 months or more, to improve overall figures.

At Guy's and St Thomas', inappropriate suspensions affected an unknown but probably "considerable" number of patients over four years while at Bart's and the London NHS Trust, an internal inquiry found "systematic waiting list data manipulation had been going on for around four years", the report said.

At all trusts there was an inquiry and seven staff resigned. One has now retired, one had already left and one remains suspended. Four received more than £250,000 in compensation covered by a confidentiality clause and six are re-employed in the NHS, although there are no details of where they are working. Report author John Bourne said: "In some cases, there was little or no impact on patient care, but in others, patients have waited longer for treatment as a result."

Shadow health secretary Dr Liam Fox said: "This is a day of shame for Labour. The National Audit Office has confirmed what most people have believed for some time.

"The NAO report makes it clear that these fiddled figures are only the tip of the iceberg. Labour's obsession with list targets, even at the expense of patients' care, is resulting in systematic and widespread manipulation of figures in the most cynical way.

"This report finally blows ministers' cover by shining a light on one of the murkiest aspects of Labour's management of the NHS."

Meeting waiting-list targets has been one of the biggest problems for hospital managers. The Government's NHS Plan stipulated that no one should be waiting more than 18 months for an operation. This would fall to six months by 2005.