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Clinical Negligence Solicitors
Kettering General Hospital manipulated waiting time records to avoid missed targets (31 May 2017)
Date: 31/05/2017
It has been reported that Kettering General Hospital tampered with their patient waiting time records.
It was recently found that thousands of patients of Kettering General Hospital waited a year or more for operations. David Phelan, a hospital trust governor, has claimed that patients were purposefully removed from waiting lists because national targets for patient waiting times were not being met. Mr Phelan raised concerns when he discovered inconsistencies in the Referral to Treatment Time (RTT) data in late 2015.
The hospital admitted to “anomalies” in the data, and the hospital review found that 138 patients were harmed as a result of long waits, including one patient who has substantial sight loss.
David Phelan reportedly discovered that managers at the hospital had used six exclusion categories in order to remove patients from the official waiting list. He said: “It became apparent to me that a systematic fiddling of the waiting list figures was taking place”, and that the trust manipulated the figures so as to avoid fines for patients waiting for more than 52 weeks.
A Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection report said that upon these data problems being identified, the number of patients found to have waited over 52 weeks increased from 8 to 25,000.
Duncan Lewis Clinical Negligence Solicitors
The Duncan Lewis Clinical Negligence team has significant experience acting in a vast array of claims including accident and emergency failures, GP negligence claims, misdiagnosed medical conditions and wrongful death claims. They also act for children and adults who have suffered profound and permanent brain, spinal or neurological injuries and associated disabilities as a consequence of failings in medical care in both NHS and private hospitals.
If you believe you had to wait too long for treatment and wish to claim compensation or have any questions about treatment you have received, please do not hesitate to contact our team of specialist clinical negligence solicitors on 0333 772 0409.