by JENI CONNIBEER

Patients in Barnet wait longer for treatment in casualty than anywhere else in the country, new statistics from the NHS have revealed.

The delays in A&E mean that 63 per cent of patients wait more than two hours for admission ,, a higher number by far than any other health authority.

And borough health watchdogs have admitted the figures have not come as a surprise to anyone.

'Barnet people are not getting good service. We have been saying this all along but we take no joy in being right about it,' said Alan Sloam from Barnet Community Health Council.

The NHS performance indicators, published last Friday, show that Barnet has one of the lowest overall death rates and the country's lowest death rate from cancer.

However other figures which should signal good news for the hospital trust have been condemned as misleading.

The number of hospital operations cancelled on or before the scheduled date was listed as zero.

But Barnet and Chase Farm hospitals cancelled 258 operations last year, some before patients even made it to hospital and some on the scheduled day.

An NHS Trust spokesman said a practice of advising patients the day before if operations were likely to be cancelled had affected the statistics.

He said: 'We have taken immediate steps to amend the way the figures are recorded at Barnet Hospital to give a more accurate picture. At no time has the Trust tried to hide its figures.'