Stafford hospital meets A&E targets for first time in three months

Trust bosses confirmed the Weston Road site had reached the 95 per cent benchmark at the end of January and were 'very close to doing the same' last week.

It is the first time since November 30 that County Hospital has met the target. Following huge winter pressure on Staffordshire's A&E departments, especially at Royal Stoke University Hospital which led to the trust calling a 'major incident' in January, a recovery plan was put in place which aimed for the hospital to meet the standard by March meaning the department is more than a month ahead of schedule.

Dr Gavin Russell, medical director at the University Hospitals of North Midlands Trust, responded to criticism from campaigners that the figures were misleading because County Hospital was a 'glorified minor injuries unit' and not a 'proper functioning A&E'.

Dr Russell said: "It is unsafe to run surgery here, we haven't the capacity to do it and that is absolutely the right thing.

"But this is an emergency-physician led A&E. The only difference is it is not open at night and there is no surgery on site. It is not unique in England. As far as I am concerned it is a physician-led A&E. It meets the national criteria for an A&E."

Royal Stoke is still falling way short of the national benchmark with as few as 75 per cent of patients being seen within four hours at A&E in January which led to the 'major incident' been declared. The Newcastle Road site has been under added pressure since 2011 when County's A&E closed overnight, but towards the end of last year the problems were intensified by 'unprecedented levels of flu'.

In December about 10,000 patients visited the department which saw more 3,800 people wait longer than four hours to be seen.

But the trust is confident in meeting the 95 per cent requirement by the end of March.

UHNM Trust board member Helen Lingham said: "County has achieved the 95 per cent four hour standard which is really good news for staff and patients.

"The Royal Stoke site has faced huge challenges but we are now coming out of the issues which the big spike in flu admissions caused us but it clearly takes a while to come through."

It comes as 24 new maternity beds are opening at New Cross Hospital as it starts to take Staffordshire mothers-to-be. Two new delivery rooms are also being unveiled later this month, while there will be four extra cots on the special care baby unit. The expansion is needed to cope with the influx of patients.