NHS managers fear waiting list witch-hunts

6 Mar 03
As the fallout from the Audit Commission's damning report on NHS waiting lists gathers pace, health management bodies have called for immediate action by ministers to prevent a 'witch-hunt' that could further damage the sector.

07 March 2003

As the fallout from the Audit Commission's damning report on NHS waiting lists gathers pace, health management bodies have called for immediate action by ministers to prevent a 'witch-hunt' that could further damage the sector.

Both the Institute of Healthcare Management and the NHS Confederation have condemned the deliberate manipulation of waiting lists uncovered at three out of 41 NHS trusts 'spot-checked' by the Audit Commission.

But both organisations said ministers must help correct 'systematic weaknesses' in waiting list reporting, which led to inaccurate figures at 19 other trusts which had made no attempt to manipulate statistics.

Rosey Foster, acting chief executive of the IHM, said most inaccuracies were 'more a case of cock-up rather than conspiracy'. She blamed the continued use of antiquated information systems at trusts and confusing government targets.

'The magnitude of NHS trusts getting it wrong should prompt the Department of Health to look again at the clarity of the instructions it issues. This should not turn into a witch-hunt for bad managers,' she told Public Finance.

Gill Morgan, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, also blamed 'years of under-investment in information systems' by the DoH. 'We must not condemn NHS management on the basis of a small minority of trusts,' she said.

But despite managerial rebuttals, the fallout from the report has begun. Jane Herbert, the former chief executive of the South Manchester University Hospitals NHS Trust, one of the three organisations criticised for fiddling lists, resigned from her current post at Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire's strategic health authority.

She denied any 'deliberate attempt to mislead'. Her former deputy, Chris Povah, has been suspended from his new post at East Cheshire NHS Trust.

During visits conducted between June and November 2002, auditors also uncovered evidence of deliberate misreporting at East & North Hertfordshire and Scarborough & North East Yorkshire Healthcare NHS trusts. Altogether they found that 30% of performance indicators relating to waiting lists were inaccurate.

Just three trusts – Nottingham City, Royal Devon & Exeter Healthcare and Salisbury Healthcare – were highlighted as beacons of good practice.

Although the commission claimed that the levels of inaccuracies were unlikely to affect patient care 'significantly', there is no doubt the report undermines ministerial claims that waiting lists are coming down. It also comes just 18 months after a National Audit Office study exposed other trusts for manipulating figures.

NHS chief executive Nigel Crisp warned: 'Deliberate misreporting of waiting list data is reprehensible and inexcusable. We have made it very clear that serious consequences will follow.'

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