'Under-recording of three weeks wait per patient'

The National Audit Office report reviewed 650 orthopaedic patient waiting times across seven hospital trusts.

"More than half of these were not supported by documented evidence or were incorrectly recorded," it said.

In 281 cases, waiting times had been correctly recorded and were supported by documented evidence.

But in 202 cases, waiting times were not supported by enough evidence to say whether they had been correctly recorded.

And in a further 167 cases, there was "evidence of at least one error, leading to under and over-recording of waiting time".

"There was an overall under-recording of three weeks (mean) per patient," it concluded.