Shorter waiting times for Staffordshire A&E patients
More than 70 per cent of patients visiting A&E in Staffordshire have been seen within four hours for the first time in more than two months.
The University Hospitals Of North Midlands NHS Trust, which runs Stafford's County Hospital and Royal Stoke University Hospital, has continuously been failing to meet the Government target of seeing 95 per cent of patients within four hours.
But the latest figures from NHS England show that the trust saw 71.4 per cent of patients within the four-hour limit in the week ending May 17.
In the three weeks previously, the trust achieved figures of around 67 per cent.
But only three in five patients were seen within the guideline time frame in the week ending April 12 and figures in March dipped as low as 55.6 per cent.
According to NHS England, the last time the trust achieved a figure above 70 per cent was in the week ending March 8, when it stood at 70.3 per cent.
Stafford's A&E department was closed overnight in 2011 due to safety concerns, but the Conservatives have pledged to restore a full 24-hour service in the town as soon as it is clinically safe.
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt made the pledge just before the general elections, prompting a backlash by hospital campaigners who labelled it an 'election bribe'.
