A hospital in the Black Country has been taken off “red alert” after slashing accident and emergency waiting times, it emerged today.

Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley had been categorized as a high risk after repeatedly missing targets for patient waiting times.

But just 12 months on, NHS regulator Monitor has removed the “red” rating and downgraded it by two levels to “amber-green”.

Dudley Group of Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, was placed on red alert after falling short of the target which stated that 98 per cent of A&E patients should be seen within four hours, with a score of 97.96 per cent.

Monitor spokesman Michael Moruzzi said: “Since then, the trust has demonstrated considerable progress towards addressing our concerns and has robust plans in place to continue to do so.

“Having considered this, Monitor’s board decided to remove Dudley Group of Hospitals from significant breach, and assign a lower risk rating for governance.”

Monitor classifies each NHS trust as one of four risk ratings — green, amber-green, red-amber, and red.

Nearly £1 million was invested in the A&E department by the trust after being placed in the worst category.

Extra senior medical staff posts were created and 60 new members of staff were recruited to help ease waiting times. A consultancy firm was also drafted in at a cost of £160,000.

Trust chief executive Paula Clark said: “The trust has worked hard over the last 12 months to improve our performance.

“We are proud that we have gone from a position where we were narrowly missing the target to one where we are now one of the best performing trusts in the region.”

“I would like to thank the staff across the trust for all their hard work and determination to help improve our performance.”

She said the trust was now aiming to achieve green grading.