A hospital trust has been criticised for its handling of patients waiting for operations.

An independent report for the Surrey and Sussex Strategic Health Authority said patients had been inappropriately suspended from waiting lists by Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust.

It followed the discovery that 234 patients had been waiting more than the Government target of nine months for an operation but were all absent from figures published by the trust at the end of last June.

The report said the suspensions were the result of organisational failure rather than a deliberate attempt by senior managers to mislead.

The problem mainly affected patients waiting for routine orthopaedic operations such as hip or knee surgery.

In a report to the trust board yesterday, chief executive Peter Coles said lessons had been learnt from the incident and changes made to make sure it did not happen again.

Patients ready to be admitted for an operation are placed on an active waiting list and these are the figures used to calculate whether there have been any breaches of Government waiting times.

The waiting time limit is now six months.

At any one time a consultant is likely to have a number of patients who are not ready to be admitted to hospital.

In these circumstances patients will be suspended from the active waiting list until they are ready for admission.

The report found patients had been suspended from the waiting list because the hospital did not have the capacity to meet demand.

As pressure grew to meet the national target so did the frequency of inappropriate suspensions.

The review team concluded the trust's executive team must have known about the suspensions and should have been more proactive in stopping them.

It said there was a failure at senior management level to recognise, monitor and then manage the growing problem of waiting lists.

The report recommended the trust board should make sure it had a management regime strong enough to identify and improve problem areas.

It said the trust, primary care trusts and health authority all shared some responsibility for the incident.

In his report Mr Coles, who was appointed in the late summer of 2004, said a great deal had now changed. He highlighted that:

No patients have waited longer than nine months for an operation since January 1.

Clinical staff, including consultants, are now involved in the management of orthopaedic operations.

Training in waiting list management and recording has been given to all relevant staff.

A local health economy steering group has been established to oversee improvements in the orthopaedic waiting list.

The opening of a new orthopaedic centre at the Princess Royal Hospital, in Haywards Heath, is also expected to ease pressures.