London - A consultant said yesterday the government's obsession with waiting list numbers had contributed to a nationwide crisis in hospital mortuary facilities and the scandal of dead patients being left on floors.
Health service managers are being stopped from spending funds on pathology facilities but are then "scapegoated" when problems arise, Mr Richard Rawlins, an orthopaedic consultant at Bedford Hospital, said.
But the Health Secretary, Mr Alan Milburn, denied the scandal was caused by funding problems and blamed in on a "failing of management within the Trust".