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Labour is paying hospitals to remove patients from waiting lists WITHOUT treating them

The Labour government – specifically Wes Streeting’s department – is paying NHS hospitals to remove patients from waiting lists.

“Record numbers of treatments” says Labour

The Times first reported that Labour is paying £33 per patient removed. This is part of a “drive to show the NHS is working”.

Only last month, the government and NHS England boasted that waiting lists had fallen by 260,000 since Labour was elected, due to delivering “record numbers of treatments”.

So how many of these 260,000 people did hospitals actually provide treatment for? And how many did they simply bin so they could claim a pathetic £33?

Now, the Nuffield Trust and the Health Foundation have produced research which indicates these figures are misleading. The drastic fall in waiting lists was because of “unreported removals” – trusts removing patients without treatment.

Fiddling the books

The NHS is still treating fewer patients than are joining waiting lists; in total, 6.23 million patients are waiting for treatment. One trust – Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, removed more than 5,000 patients, meaning they may have generated £165,000 in income.

The Times noted:

Morgan said moving patients off the waiting list after a “validation exercise” by finding those who no longer needed treatment — having gone private, left the country or died, for example — was “nothing unusual”, but added: “What’s unusual this year is trusts are being incentivised to remove patients from the waitlist.”

Surely fiddling the stats is a sackable offence?

Meanwhile, doctors have been striking over pay disputes.

Too simple

Surely if Labour pays the doctors more, they would avoid the strikes, and in turn the doctors would be able to see more patients, and bam – waiting lists start to shorten.

It seems a little too simple for Mr Streeting, though.

And what, patients are just left to suffer, or worse, die?

If Labour truly cared about the public, it would be tackling the root causes of the waiting lists. Lack of funding, staff shortages, and low pay would be the perfect places to start.

Labour has designed this ‘incentive’ to make it look like it’s taking control of waiting lists. But in reality? It will only lead to hospitals prioritising quick cash and making unnecessary mistakes.

At the end of the day, it’s putting patient lives on the line – all to look like it’s reducing waiting lists. Meanwhile, it strips chronically ill and disabled people of benefits – and claims the NHS has them covered. This could not be more alarming.

Feature image via the Canary

By HG

This post was originally published on Canary.