A National Audit Office report has identified the NHS trusts where it says waiting lists have been inappropriately adjusted. NHS chief executive Nigel Crisp has condemned the managers responsible and launched an action plan to meet recommendations for improvements detailed in the report.
The plan includes carrying out spot checks on hospital waiting list figures and publishing NHS consultant waiting times on the internet to enable patients to check them against actual experience. It also includes dismissal on grounds of gross misconduct of any manager found to have deliberately distorted waiting times.
The report shows that although action was taken to deal with the staff involved, it could have been done more effectively.
"Nine out of 300 NHS trusts distorted their figures. The number of patients involved is very small set against the five million who have an NHS operation each year, but the principles involved are important. I take this report very seriously," said Crisp.
Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith said that the report's findings highlighted the systematic pressure being put on doctors and managers to "fiddle" the figures to meet waiting list targets.
The report makes a number of key recommendations. It says that the Department of Health should seek assurances from the chief executive of every NHS trust that waiting lists have not been adjusted inappropriately. It should also investigate in more detail those trusts where more than 10% of patients are suspended from the waiting list or where more than 2% of patients wait more than a year for treatment. Some 13 trusts currently meet both these criteria.
The nine NHS trusts where inappropriate adjustments came to light were named as Barts and the London; Guy's and St Thomas's; Plymouth Hospitals; Redbridge Health Care; Salford Royal; South Warwickshire General; Stoke Mandeville; Surrey and Sussex Healthcare; and University College London Hospitals.
The report, Inappropriate Adjustments to NHS Waiting Lists , is at www.nao.gov.uk/publications/nao_reports/01-02/0102452.pdf