FAMILY doctors have accused North-East hospitals of massaging waiting list figures by refusing to accept patient referrals.

The British Medical Association (BMA) has expressed concern at a problem which it says is happening across the country.

The Government wants to introduce a maximum 18-week wait between referral to a hospital by a GP and treatment, by December next year.

Patients are being given a choice of at least five hospitals, including one in the private sector.

But this has led to managers at the most popular hospitals refusing to accept new referrals where they believe this will extend waits beyond 18 weeks.

According to GPs, this means some patients are having to wait to get onto the official waiting list.

This information, however, is not recorded by the NHS.

Dr John Canning, a Middlesbrough GP who sits on the BMA's GP Committee, said: "It is massaging figures to appear that you have met targets when you are not meeting the needs of the population."

Another GP, from County Durham, said the Government should be more open with patients and accept that for some specialities, an 18-week maximum wait for treatment was not possible.

GPs say that patients who need immediate surgery are being side-tracked by being sent to physiotherapists for assessment rather than being sent directly to see a surgeon.

The situation means that patients who request hip, knee and foot surgery at the South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust are forced to wait until places on the "official"

orthopaedic waiting list become available.

Patients needing treatment for spinal problems at the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust are being turned away because there are already too many patients in the queue.

The region's hospitals are pushing to be among the first to introduce the 18-week maximum wait.

Most trusts are hoping to meet their targets before the deadline.

A County Durham GP, who asked to remain anonymous, said: "More and more hospital trusts are saying we are getting too many referrals to hit the 18- week target, so we won't take any.

"Patients think they have a choice, but they are told sorry, we have got too many people'."

Neil Permain, operational services director with South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said the trust had negotiated with North-East commissioners to see a maximum number of patients at any particular time.

The South Tees trust, which serves Teesside, South Durham and North Yorkshire, had plans to expand the number of orthopaedic surgeons, anaesthetists and support staff early next year Medical director for North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust Dr Peter Gill said: "Patients don't want to wait and we don't want them to wait either."

Dr Richard Vautrey, deputy chairman of the BMA GPs Committee, said: "It's a great concern if hospitals are putting targets ahead of patient care. It's ethically dubious and it puts doctors in a very difficult position."