The NHS waiting list in England has seen a small increase in the previous month, warning that there is not enough patients to keep hospitals with demand.
In late June, the list was 7.37 million, an increase of 10,000 in May.
Although it is still below the figure of 7.62 million in the previous year, internal documents viewed by the BBC suggest that a factor patients are being removed from the list without any treatment. This can occur legally when patients pay for private treatment or recover – but experts say it shows that NHS is struggling to maintain.
The government said that it was trying to ensure all the patients who need care, get it as soon as possible.
NHS has been encouraged to exclude patients who do not need to remain in the waiting list described by authorities for many years as “verification”.
Financial incentives are paid for the number of patients paid and can also include patients who have died.
This can make services more efficient, as it means that hospitals are not unnecessarily pursuing patients who no longer need treatment.
Internal documents have shown that, during March and April, the waiting list was brought below 100,000 via the exclusion of patients. The list would increase without it.
Nafield Trust Think-Tank said that the correct number being removed could also be higher.
Its analysis showed over 200,000 removal in the last two years in a month. Think-tank claimed that, at the top of verification, computing errors may mean that some patients are automatically being removed in error, making an additional waiting list that does not appear in the figures.
Dr. from Nafield Trust. Bake Fisher said: “It will be easy to assume that recently cuts in waiting list are treating a large number of patients every month for NHS, but our analysis shows that it is a mritakrishna to present such progress in this way.
“NHS is really still treating fewer patients, which are being referred to.”
He said that this waiting list “verification” exercise was the right thing to do in many cases, but what is happening behind the curtain required more transparency and understanding.
The government said that verification removal was only a small factor for the progress being made in the waiting list, stating that NHS was still managing to treat the increasing number of patients.
Screening of the waiting list through the verification process was important and eventually improves productivity, they argue.
A department of a spokesperson of health and social care said: “Our drive to clean the huge waiting list we inherited by us involves ensuring that all patients are getting the right treatment as soon as possible.”
