FIRM evidence that the Government's drive to cut NHS waiting lists has distorted the order in which patients are treated was published by the National Audit Office (NAO) today.

More than half of consultants in England said they had been forced to treat less urgent cases at the expense of more seriously-ill patients in a bid to meet tough Whitehall targets on reducing hospital queues.

And one in five of the 558 consultants questioned for the NAO report said clinical priorities were regularly distorted.

The report also found huge variations in the time patients had to wait for surgery in different parts of the country.

In Dorset, only 0.5 per cent of all people had to wait more than six months for surgery, compared with 52 per cent in Croydon.

Northern and Yorkshire fared better than most other regions in terms of the average number of patients waiting for inpatient treatment per 1,000 people, but there were black spots.

Sunderland had one of the highest proportions in England of urology in-patients waiting more than six months (33 per cent compared to no one waiting in Dorset).

In this region, County Durham had the lowest percentage of in- patients waiting at least six months (16.7 per cent), compared to North Yorkshire which had the highest proportion (24.5 per cent).

The Government's 1997 election pledge to cut waiting lists by 100,000 from the level inherited from the Conservatives was met.

But there are still more than one million people waiting for in-patient treatment in England, including 246,000 who have been waiting more than six months and 42,000 on an NHS list for more than a year.

Doctors say the pressure on hospitals to meet Government targets had meant they have been pushed to perform larger numbers of routine operations at the expense of patients needing longer surgery.

Hospital bosses were anxious to ensure no patient waited longer than the Government's pledged maximum of 18 months for in- patient surgery, the report found.

Less-ill patients coming up to the 18-month deadline effectively "queue jump" more needy cases.

Health Secretary Alan Milburn has set no new targets for cutting the numbers of people on waiting lists. New targets will focus on cutting the time patients wait.

The NHS Plan published last year has pledged that by next year no patient will wait longer than 15 months, and by 2005 there will be a maximum in-patient waiting time of only six months