The Tories lie about cancelled operations at Kingston Hospital - and I smell a rat
A few days ago I was astonished to read that Andrew Lansley (the Conservative Health spokesman) had claimed that Kingston Hospital had cancelled over 10,000 operations last year. This was so obviously false, and yet the Tories persisted in telling the world that Kingston hospital was the worst in the country.
How dare they!
Our local MP was equally startled and did some digging around. As you might have guessed, the figure the Tories gave for cancelled operations was nearer to the figure for operations that happened!
The Healthcare Commission gives these figures for cancelled operations at Kingston Hospital: 116 for 2006-07, and 190 for 2007-08. The hospital carries out around 15,000 each year so the number of cancellations accounts for less than 1%.
As if that wasn't enough, this is the second time in a couple of weeks that the Tories have misled the public about Kingston Hospital. On the previous occasion they obtained the figures for visits by pest controllers to hospitals across the country, and spread a scare story about the number of infestations that this must represent.
In the case of Kingston Hospital they claimed that pest controllers had visited over 50 times between January 2006 and April 2008. In fact, the actual figure was higher, at 121.
But, but, but.... the truth is that the Hospital has a contract under which a pest controller visits every week. So during that period there were 121 planned visits. This is a preventative approach that should be applauded.
Again - an appalling piece of misleading publicity.
Edward Davey has demanded an apology from Andrew Lansley and you can read the full text of his letter.
Comments: 2
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It seems that the problem lies in the methodology used by the Tories. They wrote to each Hospital directly, but the questions were ambiguous and were interpreted differently by different trusts.
In Kingston's case it was so obviously wrong that they should never have published the figures without more careful checking. I imagine several other hospitals, like those in Plymouth, have been equally maligned by the press release.
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