Targets row as hospital ends 'Blair' heart op

Published on Tuesday 3 January 2006 00:48

HOSPITAL chiefs were yesterday accused of sacrificing patients' welfare to meet targets after scrapping a routine treatment which cured Tony Blair's irregular heartbeat last year.

The Oxford Radcliffe NHS Trust has wiped dozens of people from waiting lists for cardiac catheter ablation, a procedure the Prime Minister underwent.

The trust said it had been forced to restrict the treatment to only the most desperate cases in an attempt to cut costs.

But patients, pressure groups and MPs say they believe the operations - which have a 95 per cent success rate - were stopped to meet maximum six-month wait targets.

The alarm was first raised by the Arrhythmia Alliance a month ago after the patients' group was deluged by complaints from disappointed sufferers and concerned doctors.

Letters to the Prime Minister and Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, went unanswered.

The group now hopes the public row will force the trust into a rethink and prevent other trusts around the country using the same tactics.

Trudie Lobban, the group's founder, said: "The trust are saying it's because of the cost, but it's ironic that with one fell swoop they have got rid of their waiting list.

"Some of these patients cannot work - yet Tony Blair had the operation and he was back at work the next day, running the country.

"It is a scandal what they are doing. These poor people are being made scapegoats for the bureaucracy which goes on behind."

Ms Hewitt said she understood patients' concerns but insisted it was a local decision.

The trust said the changes had been made in an attempt to "balance the books".