Health commissioners are set to fine the trust that runs Watford General Hospital around  £500,000 a month – because its waiting times are too high.

According to NHS targets, 92 per cent of patients should receive treatment within 18 weeks of referral.

But at West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust – which runs Watford General, St Albans City Hospital and Hemel Hempstead Hospital – the latest figures show just 85 per cent of patients have been seen within that time.

And around 92 patients have been waiting for more than a year.

Now Herts Valleys Clinical Commissioning Group is set to impose financial ‘sanctions’, of around £500,000 a month.

The first of those fines – relating to performance in April and May this year – has been set at £888,000.

The CCG says further fines will follow once data has been verified.

The punishments are expected to continue until the trust reaches the 92 per cent target level.

Commenting on the measures, the hospital trust's chief financial officer Don Richards said:  “We have received notification from Herts Valleys CCG of their intention to apply fines for April and May of this year for our underperformance against national treatment targets.

"We also anticipate notification of further fines for this year.

“We are in discussion with the CCG about how this money could be used to good effect to alleviate elective and emergency pressures at the trust.

“However, once levied, these fines will worsen our financial position.”

According to a report for the meeting of the CCG board last Thursday, the current waiting lists partly reflect the suspension of elective and routine surgery – between January and March – to cope with winter pressures.

Since then the trust has built up a “considerable backlog” – including 92 patients who have been waiting more than a year.

Most of these patients are said to have complex needs and are likely to need intensive car following surgery.

They are concentrated in orthopaedic, ophthalmology, ear, nose and throat and general surgery. So far six have been judged to have suffered “minimal harm” as a result of the delay.

No patient has been judged to have suffered ‘moderate’ or ‘severe’ harm due to waiting.

According to the CCG board papers, additional beds at Watford General have been ring-fenced for elective surgery as part of a drive to cut waiting lists – including seven for orthopaedics.

St Albans City Hospital is being used to treat more complex patients and some patients are being treated by other providers outside the NHS, including One Hatfield, the Spire Group and The Wellington Hospital.

Meanwhile a number of patients – who have been waiting for more than 18 weeks but not yet had an outpatients appointment – are likely to be listed with other providers.

To support the trust, the board papers say the CCG is funding a programme manager and administrators to support the outsourcing by contacting patients and dealing with the clinical handover.

The CCG is also auditing waiting lists to see if patients meet the so-called ‘low priority low threshold procedures criteria’.

At  the meeting of the board CCG chief executive Kathryn Magson said the position at the trust was “quite serious”.