NHS hospital ‘playing games’ with cancer waiting times

Dr Paul Roblin, the chief executive of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Local Medical Committee, told the trade magazine Pulse: “This is the perverse effect of targets. People begin playing games if targets are likely to be breached.

A spokesman for the trust, which runs the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, said: “Occasionally patients given urgent appointments fail to attend on the day because they are unavailable through family commitments or holidays. This means we can’t see them within the two-week deadline.

“What we are suggesting to GPs is that where a patient knows they will not be able to attend an appointment within the next two weeks, perhaps it would be more appropriate to refer them as soon [as possible] after their previously arranged holiday or family commitment.”

Figures published by the Department of Health yesterday showed an increase in the number of patients waiting longer than the target of six weeks for key tests such as MRI and CAT scans and barium enemas. At the end of August, there were 550,284 people still waiting for diagnostic procedures, including 11,424 who had been on the list longer than the recommended six weeks. This represents a rise of 700 on the previous month and of 5,500 from last year.

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