Medics are being urged to blow the whistle on waiting list fiddles, in a bid to prevent a repeat of the scandal at Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust.

The Conservatives yesterday launched a web site which allows doctors and nurses to highlight deliberate manipulation of patient lists.

Shadow Health Secretary Liam Fox said it could help expose hospitals before patients and staff started to suffer.

Last year, a damning report found 6,000 patients suffered from "deliberate manipulation" of waiting lists at nine NHS Trusts - including Surrey and Sussex.

Investigations found patients being left off waiting lists, inappropriate suspensions from the lists, patients being offered admission dates while they were away on holiday and patients being offered non-existent short-notice admission dates.

Dr Fox said it was clear the Government's obsession with waiting lists was putting NHS professionals in an impossible position.

Dr Fox said: "The Government is constantly interfering with the running of the health system and often political objectives conflict with clinical priorities."

People who wanted to criticise Government directives were victimised and intimidated, he claimed. He said the new Freedom From Fear web site would offer staff to speak out anonymously.

The Tory shadow health team, which includes Worthing and Shoreham MP Tim Loughton, will then take up cases with the health authorities.

If medics allow, they could also be used to kick-start debate about the state of the NHS.

Problems at Surrey and Sussex were traced back to April 1998, when the trust was formed with the merger of two trusts.

In 1998, the trust bucked all expected trends by announcing the number of patients awaiting treatment had fallen.

However, within 12 months, the list had jumped significantly and the NHS South-East Regional Office was asked to carry out an investigation.

The inquiry reported that in 1998 some 700 patients had been deliberately held back from being put on the waiting list, with only urgent patients being put in the queue. It also found 300 patients who were due to be transferred to another hospital within the trust also failed to be put on the waiting list.

Hundreds of patients were being taken off the list unnecessarily. The report suggested hospital staff would contact patients awaiting treatment to find out when they were planning to go on holiday. Those patients would then be called again and deliberately offered care during that period. Others were offered non-existent appointments at very short notice.

If patients declined the dates on offer, they would be suspended from or taken off the waiting list.

The web site can be found at www.conservatives.com/freedomfromfear