Verita

Waiting list irregularities

Verita has carried out numerous investigations into waiting list irregularities, most recently in three trusts in London and the south east where numbers were adjusted to avoid being seen to breach government targets. Governance failures were a feature of all three investigations: investment in capacity planning and performance management of waiting lists was insufficient, administrative procedures were complicated and over long, and information systems were poor and failed to detect what was going on. Significantly, commissioners of services and providers of services (trusts) had agreed service levels which they knew were ambitious in the extreme. This situation was sometimes compounded by a bullying culture in which junior staff felt they had to report good news to senior staff.

An earlier investigation into orthopaedic waiting list breaches at another trust had similarly found that the local delivery plan had set an unrealistic workload for the trust.