THE amount of patients waiting more than four hours to be seen at Worcestershire Royal Hospital’s A&E department has decreased significantly, but targets are still being missed.

A report presented at a meeting of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust – which runs the Royal as well as Kidderminster Hospital and Redditch’s Alexandra Hospital – on Wednesday, September 3 showed 92.98 patients visiting A&E in Worcester in July were seen within four hours.

Although this is the greatest amount for more than 12 months – with percentages dropping as low as 85.74 per cent in February – it is still lower than the government mandated target of at least 95 per cent.

Although the trust as a whole achieved 92.96 per cent in June and 96.15 per cent in July it is still slightly below the 95 per cent target for the past 12 months as a whole.

The figures have been blamed on an unusually high amount of patients visiting A&E, a staff shortage and a lack of beds.

Figures for August are not yet available and will be presented at the next meeting of the trust on Wednesday, September 24.