'Bail out' crisis-hit hospital

More patients were waiting than reported by the trust

The government should step in to bail out a crisis-hit hospital that falsified patient waiting list times, according to an MP.

On Saturday, it was revealed the Royal United Hospital (RUH) in Bath faces a £20m overspend this year because of the pressure its frontline health services are under.

The news came after the publication of a report about the hospital's problems led the chairman of the RUH to step down and its finance director to be suspended.

The independent report said: "There is evidence to suggest that there may have been some deliberate falsification of figures."

[The debt] should not be met by reducing frontline services at the hospital

Andrew Murrison MP

However Andrew Murrison MP, whose constituents use the hospital, said the government's determination to set rigid healthcare targets is partly to blame.

Mr Murrison, the Conservative MP for Westbury, told BBC News Online the targets have put the hospital under "immense pressure".

He said: "Instead of setting headline grabbing targets, to ensure it gets re-elected, the government should be setting targets by the priorities healthcare conditions actually dictate.

"As for the debt the hospital has revealed, it is a huge amount of money.

"But what I will be pushing health secretary Alan Milburn to confirm is that covering the debt will be centrally funded.

'Deliberate falsification'

"It should not be met by reducing frontline services at the hospital, which are under huge pressure already at the hospital."

The report into the hospital said waiting list data was subject to many "amendments" before being reported externally.

In response to the revelations the RUH Trust said its finance director Martin Dove had been suspended and Trust chairman Gerald Chown would retire later this month.

The report said: "At times the number of patients waiting was significantly greater than the number being reported."

Investigation begun

It found that in March 2001, the actual number of outpatients who had waited over 13 weeks for an appointment was 2,000 more than the 122 reported by the hospital trust.

The report was commissioned by the hospital trust and led by Alan Bedford, the then chief executive of East Sussex, Brighton and Hove Health Authority.

The Royal United Hospital Trust said it had asked a former regional director of the NHS to look into the findings of the report.