NHS Trust accused of breaching waiting list guidelines by not counting 'long waiters'
Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust has admitted using a "non-standard" process of not logging patients who have been waiting two years for treatment on its reports.
The trust's breaching waiting list guidelines came to light after a leak about the practice of not recording 'long waiters' normally.
Excluding 'long waiters' helped Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals report zero patients waiting more than two years for treatment during most of last year.
Cases which "pop up" as two-year waits are temporarily removed before health chiefs review whether cases are data errors or if they can be seen within a month.
Sandwell and West Birmingham (SWB) NHS Trust chief operating officer Jo Newens admitted to the Express & Star that the "long waiter" pop-up practice is not standard.
