A senior orthopaedic surgeon has revealed he was told to halt treatment on patients requiring urgent attention in order to focus on routine operations.

The shadow health secretary, Dr Liam Fox, hit out at ministers after Martin Bircher said hospital managers had ordered him to stop treating emergency patients from outside his local area.

Bircher claims hospital managers at St George's hospital told him to focus on routine operations in an effort to drive down waiting lists.

Dr Fox said the case was not a "a one off" and called on the government to set hospitals free from central control.

"Waiting list distortion has become endemic up and down the country," he warned.

"It is cynical, manipulative, unethical and extremely New Labour.

"It is absolutely disgusting that people with serious conditions are being forced to wait for operations, whilst minor conditions are dealt with in an attempt to meet government targets.

The opposition claims that the Bircher case is "symptomatic of a system where government statistics are given more importance than patients".

"Skilled doctors and nurses should be making decisions about when and how to treat patients, not politicians in Whitehall," said Dr Fox.

The Lib Dem health spokesman, Dr Evan Harris, said the case illustrated the need for the government to end its obsession with targets.

"Waiting time targets are a blunt instrument. Where there are maximum waiting time targets there will be an inevitable distortion of clinical priorities," he said.

"Politicians in the Labour and Conservative parties have to choose between the imposition of targets and the ethical allocation of resources according to clinical needs of patients.

"There has to be an end to political interference with clinical decisions. Ministers should aim to reduce waiting times for all patients, not just for the lucky few.

"There is no doubt that patients' lives are being lost because hospitals are being forced to treat targets instead of being allowed to care for patients."