The news that hundreds of patients "disappeared" from hospital waiting list figures to meet Government targets is a sad reflection on the state of the NHS.

It is yet another blow to patient confidence which has suffered a steady stream of mistakes and scandals in the past two years.

Trusts across Sussex have faced increasing pressures to reduce waiting list numbers or face cuts in funding.

This led to the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, which is responsible for treating thousands of people in the Crawley and Horsham area of Sussex, to manipulate its figures for the last quarter of 1998/99.

The discrepancies were discovered by the trust's chief executive, Ken Cunningham, when he took up his post last year and an immediate investigation was launched.

The trust's management has introduced new measures to make sure this never happens again and it is to be commended for being open and honest about what happened.

The NHS has indicated it is unlikely to take any further action on this issue despite its report clearly laying overall responsibility for the incident at the door of the trust's former chief executive, Isobel Gowan, which has angered a patients group.

But the main concern now is how many other hospitals may have carried out a similar move to meet targets and how many patients might have found themselves facing an even longer wait for treatment as a result.