QMC wait time records changed

HUNDREDS of records of patients who waited too long for treatment at the Queen's Medical Centre's emergency department have been changed, bosses have admitted.

A review has found that 765 records were altered between March and September to falsely show that patients were seen in less than four hours.

Ninety-eight per cent of patients have to be admitted, treated or discharged within that time to meet national targets.

And the extra breaches of the four-hour mark means Nottingham University Hospitals Trust is missing the target for the current year.

Officials are now looking back even further to uncover the true scale of the problem.

And two new probes have been launched by the trust and the strategic health authority NHS East Midlands to find out how the records were changed.

The trust's own investigation will be carried out independently by experts from other NHS organisations and is expected to report back by the end of the year.

Chief executive Dr Peter Homa said "accurate and honest" reporting of its performance was a priority.

He said: "The dominant message we want to give is one of sincere regret that this difficulty has occurred.

"The emergency department and the trust does a really excellent job for patients and we very much regret that this difficulty might serve to obscure that.

"We would like to reassure patients and the public that this has not in any way affected the standard of care patients have received at our hospital."

The Evening Post reported in August that the trust was investigating a "small number of records".

But a review of 14,000 records found 628 unreported breaches between April and September.

During this period 75,000 patients attended the QMC's emergency department.

A further 137 records were changed in March – so the trust cannot be sure about its data for the 2008/9 financial year.

This means that figures cannot be submitted for the Care Quality Commission's annual healthcare ratings.

The health watchdog will publish its report comparing all NHS trusts in the country tomorrow.

It is not yet known how the emergency department records came to be changed.

A new procedure has been put in place where a senior member of staff signs off on records to ensure they not categorised wrongly.

Dr Nigel Sturrock, clinical director of acute medicine, said: "We have spoken to every member of staff about what is acceptable and what is not acceptable.

"Because we want to have such robust data we have been so scrupulous in saying 'if it is four hours and one minute it is a breach'.

"Where we have found shortcomings we must hold our hands up and say 'this is not good enough'."

Barbara Venes, from City Links, which represents patients in Nottingham, said: "Patients will be worried that records have been changed.

"I attended A&E in June and waited just under four hours for treatment, although they were very busy that evening.

"However, I have heard that several people have waited over four hours."

The Post reported last month that there has been "unprecedented" demand on the hospital's emergency department this year.