Many NHS hospitals are being forced to delay operations in a bid to save money, it has been claimed.
As part of an investigation by Channel 4's Dispatches programme into NHS funds, a poll questioned 60 hospitals and found "minimum waiting times" had been imposed on 43% of them by their Primary Care Trusts (PCTs). A quarter of the PCTs questioned admitted they were demanding delays.
The programme, to be broadcast on Monday night looks into why, despite the billions of pounds being pumped into the NHS in recent years, there are still huge deficits.
It says GPs are being banned from sending patients for hospital treatment and hospital doctors are being asked to delay operation by "cash-strapped" PCTs attempting to balance their books.
James Johnson, chair of the British Medical Association told the programme: "The really ridiculous thing is that in the hospital you're having to wait to go in to, the beds are probably empty, the doctors are doing nothing, the nurses are doing nothing.
"They've just been told by their purchasers not to do the work. Now that is a crazy situation which goes against absolutely everything we stand for as doctors."
Dispatches quotes North Yorkshire GP Dr Pat McGrann, who says he was sent a list by his PCT in January of procedures which cannot currently be carried out in hospital. It claims the ban is in place at least until March 31.
Types of treatments to be sidelined include non-life threatening procedures such as varicose vain surgery.
The programme says much of the multi-billion-pound investment has been "squandered" on "New Labour's complex health bureaucracy", with the large number of recent reforms leaving those running the NHS tied up in red tape.
It also claims the Government's new IT system for the NHS, expensive Private Finance Initiatives and pay deals for medical staff like GPs have helped compound the problem.
