FRESH fears have been raised over the possible widespread doctoring of NHS waiting times after it emerged accountancy giant PwC has been called in to assist a probe of all Scots health boards.
Experts from PricewaterhouseCoopers will dig out information from health board computer systems on the use of so-called "unavailability codes".
Public spending watchdog Audit Scotland are investigating all 14 regional health boards after it was revealed last year NHS Lothian were wrongly listing patients as unavailable for treatment to hit Government targets.
Boards are also conducting internal inquiries – but PwC's role only emerged in a report to NHS Lanarkshire board this week.
The parallel investigations are due to report before the end of the year.
They were launched after NHS Lothian was caught wrongly listing patients as unavailable for treatment to reduce the number of cases counted as being in breach of the Government's statutory 18-week waiting times guarantee.
The board offered treatment in England at short notice and recorded patients as unavailable if they did not travel, an independent investigation found.
Patients were returned to the waiting list but their cases were issued with a "social unavailability code" showing the health board had met the target to offer treatment in the deadline.
Labour's Jackie Baillie said of PwC's involvement: "This is astonishing and shows the scandal of waiting time fiddling in Lothian wasn't a one off.
"The NHS is being whipped by the SNP to hit targets while the Government reduce nurses, beds and resources. No wonder complaints are at a record high."
A spokesman for Audit Scotland said: "PwC have experience and technical skills and were jointly commissioned by ourselves and the Scottish Government to provide technical support at every health board."
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "The fact that an external party is involved makes this process more robust and in no way suggests the now-stopped NHS Lothian practices are widespread – in fact, due to the nature of the data analysis involved, we simply recognised specialist IT skills would be required."
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