Thenumber of hospitals failing to report the number of patients on their surgery waiting lists has reached a new high, the NHS has declared.

NHS England performance figures show nine hospital trusts did not submit data this week and calculated that a record quarter of a million patients fail to appear on official lists.

The first failure to report data came in autumn 2013 and some hospitals have failed to release information since, despite NHS rules that they should do so each month.

Andy Burnham MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, said:

“Under David Cameron, waiting lists were already at a six-year high but now we know that’s not the true picture.

"It is nothing short of a scandal that a quarter of a million people are being left off official NHS waiting lists. It is clear they are far worse than the Government has previously admitted and shows Ministers can’t be trusted with the NHS.

"This cannot be allowed to carry on - some hospital trusts have not reported data for over a year. The Government must sort it out now to give people true picture of NHS performance as we get towards the election.”

Ends

Editor’s notes

1. NHS England Referral to Treatment figures estimate, based on the last time the nine hospitals last submitted data, there are at least 246,500 waiting patients unaccounted for in current lists.

NHS England statistical press notice, pp.8-9:

http://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/06/Statistical-press-notice-PDF-74K.pdf