THE organisation running Worcestershire’s three major hospitals has continued to struggle to meet a range of NHS targets.

The latest figures released by Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust show a slight improvement in a number of areas including A&E waiting times in August, but still fall short of national requirements.

The report, which is available at worcsacute.nhs.uk, shows 85.61 per cent of patients visiting A&E at Worcestershire Royal Hospital and Redditch’s Alexandra Hospital in August were seen, treated and either admitted or discharged within four hours, far below the NHS target of at least 95 per cent.

Although the figure at the Royal alone was 78.2 per cent in August, this does show a steady improvement throughout this year, and is the highest number since November 2014.

Overall the number of patients visiting the two departments remained high at 13,050 in August.

Meanwhile the number of patients waiting for non-urgent operations continued to increase, and currently stands at 26,511. Although this is up by more than 200 from July, it does represent a drop since May this year.

Similarly, the amount of patients waiting longer than the NHS-mandated 18 weeks for an elective operation increased from 2,952 in July to 3,008 in August, but fell in comparison to April and May.

However figures in relation to cancer are a little better, with the trust meeting the majority of targets in relation to the amount of time between patients being diagnosed or referred and treatment.

The trust, which also runs Kidderminster Hospital, has been taking a number of steps to address the problems and is currently working on expanding the Royal’s A&E by about 50 per cent and creating a new discharge lounge at the hospital. But these are not expected to be ready until the start of next year.

The figures and other issues affecting Worcestershire’s hospitals will be discussed at a public meeting of the trust’s board at the Alex, starting at 9.30am on Wednesday, October 7.