Washington ? The list of patients waiting for organ transplants, which is widely used to promote organ donations, includes thousands who are ineligible for the operations, according to statistics kept by the national network that manages the allocation of organs.

More than a third of the nearly 98,000 patients on the list at any one time are classified as “inactive,” meaning they could not be given an organ if it became available because they are too sick, or not sick enough, or for some other, often unexplained, reason.

Although the need for organs far outpaces the supply, critics say the large number of inactive patients on the list may signal that potential recipients are languishing in limbo too long and that including them could mislead potential donors, recipients and policy-makers about the magnitude of the need.

Officials at the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), which oversees the transplant system under a federal contract and provided a breakdown of its waiting list at the request of The Washington Post, defend the practice. Many patients are inactive for only short periods because of temporary complications or other issues that are often resolved, they say.

But critics note that a significant number of patients have been inactive for more than two years and may never become eligible.

“The wait list is dishonest,” said Donna L. Luebke, a nurse who said she was rebuked by UNOS officials when she complained about the list near the end of the three years she served on the organization’s board of directors. “The public deserves to know the true numbers.”

The revelation comes at a time when advocates of organ donation have come under fire for using increasingly aggressive strategies to obtain organs, justifying their efforts by citing the long and steadily growing waiting list.