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| NHS staff 'felt pressure' to meet waiting times targets | NHS staff 'felt pressure' to meet waiting times targets |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Some NHS staff in Scotland said they felt under pressure to say patients were "unavailable" for appointments in order to meet waiting times targets. | Some NHS staff in Scotland said they felt under pressure to say patients were "unavailable" for appointments in order to meet waiting times targets. |
| The finding appeared in an NHS Tayside report sparked by allegations of fiddled waiting times figures. | The finding appeared in an NHS Tayside report sparked by allegations of fiddled waiting times figures. |
| All 14 Scottish health boards had been asked to review their practices in light of the accusations. | All 14 Scottish health boards had been asked to review their practices in light of the accusations. |
| NHS Tayside has apologised, adding it had put controls in place to ensure such practices had been eradicated. | NHS Tayside has apologised, adding it had put controls in place to ensure such practices had been eradicated. |
| It has also allowed two members of staff who had been suspended to return to work. | |
| Health Secretary Alex Neil is due to make a statement to MSPs about the findings in the reports. | Health Secretary Alex Neil is due to make a statement to MSPs about the findings in the reports. |
| NHS Lothian had already been criticised after it emerged in October that it had removed patients from the 18-week waiting list when they refused to travel to England for treatment. | NHS Lothian had already been criticised after it emerged in October that it had removed patients from the 18-week waiting list when they refused to travel to England for treatment. |
| Some patients were referred to Northumberland but, when they declined to go, they were marked as "unavailable for social reasons" and not included on the waiting list. | |
| After publishing its report, NHS Tayside said it was disappointed that "unacceptable practices" had been identified in a "small area" of waiting times management. | |
| A spokesman said: "We very much regret that this has happened, apologise to patients and reassure them that we have put controls in place to ensure these practices have been eradicated. | |
| "Patients are our priority and, therefore, as soon as we were alerted to a potential issue by our internal auditors, we immediately carried out an in-depth review of the patients involved. | |
| "We can reassure the public that all patients have already been treated or are on the appropriate care pathway and undergoing treatment." | |
| He added that the board's internal audit - which looked at a sample of statistics - found no evidence of "deliberate instructions" being given to members of staff regarding the "inappropriate use of waiting times codes". | |
| NHS Lanarkshire also admitted using the "unavailability" classification incorrectly. | |
| But it stated that wrong usage was based on "misunderstandings" rather than any "deliberate manipulation". | |
| It added that staff had not reported feeling under pressure to hide breaches or to manipulate data. |