300 Orthopaedic patients sent wrong treatment date while 28 wait over year

In addition, 28 patients were identified as waiting more than 52 weeks for treatment at the hospital.

Hospitals can be fined £5,000 per patient per week for any waits over a year. The Orthopadic has budgeted £200,000 for penalties relating to the long-waiting patients.

At a meeting of Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) new figures revealed that out of an audit of 1,286 patients, 885 had the correct date for a referral to treatment, 312 had an incorrect date, 26 were not on the pathway and there was insufficient information for 63.

Dr Julie Davies, director of strategy and service redesign at the CCG, said dramatic changes had been made at the hospital since the numbers were revealed.

In a presentation to board members yesterday, she said: "The Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (RJAH) has corrected its reporting practice. In terms of the issues on reporting it is going through a formal process with Monitor, the sector regulator.

"A total of 28 patients were declared as waiting more than 52 weeks at the end of November. There were also 72 long-wait patients identified.

"In addition to these figures a total of 1,271 patients either had no date or one in the past for planned treatment at the Oswestry Orthopaedic Hospital.

"These patients are split across rheumatology, metabolic, pain and spinal injuries.

"The position as of January 6 is out of a planned list of 1,362 patients only 537 now do not have a date or have one in the past.

"Additional capacity is being sourced to clear spinal injuries.

"Across England and Wales the trust has over 35,000 patients on a long term follow-up which is excessive.

"Of these 14,504 patients were beyond their date to be seen. Of initial concern there were 260 patients under the tumour sub specialty and 21 patients had been under a cancer pathway.

"For those 21 RJAH arranged urgent calls with specialist nurses and put in place additional clinics to see these patients."

An independent report recently concluded that staff at Oswestry Orthopaedic Hospital were afraid to raise concerns because they would not be listened to.

The report by Deloitte was commissioned by the hospital trust after a worker raised concerns that patient treatment times were not being properly reported to Monitor.

The concerns were backed up by the report, which concluded that there was long-standing misreporting between December 2013 and January 2015.

It was the second time that the trust had been investigated by Monitor for issues in relation to waiting time reporting, the first having been in 2013 – although concerns had also been raised by Monitor in 2011/12.

People affected by the waiting time issues can contact Healthwatch Shropshire or Shropshire CCG.