The Care Quality Commission (CQC) found “inaccuracies” with waiting time data relating to cancer treatment at Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust. The chief inspector of hospitals said that patients’ lives may have been put at risk so the trust could give an impression it was meeting waiting list targets.
Essex Police said that it was examining whether a “criminal investigation” was needed.
Prof Sir Mike Richards, the chief inspector of hospitals, said: “If you are diagnosed with cancer, you are entitled to think that your hospital will do all they can to ensure you get treatment you need as soon as possible.
“It is shocking to think that people’s lives may have been put at risk for the sake of the waiting time figures.” A number of cancer patients suffered “undue delays” which were not accurately recorded by the trust, the commission said.
Bureaucrats care about bureaucrats. It’s that simple. If a bureaucrat is looking at a choice between something that is threatening your life and something that is threatening the life of the bureaucracy the latter is going to win that battle much of the time.
Staff told inspectors that they were “pressured or bullied” to change data relating to patients and their treatment in order to make it seem like people were being treated in line with national guidelines, a CQC spokesman said.
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