THE trust running Colchester Hospital has missed its target for seeing patients in the accident and emergency unit by a whisker.

Over the past year, the NHS’s East Suffolk and North Essex Foundation Trust managed to admit, transfer or discharge 93 per cent of its 260,000 A&E attendances within just four hours.

Although this means that more than 17,000 patients had to wait longer for assistance, the percentage recorded by the trust, which manages Colchester, Clacton and Harwich hospitals, is better than the average across the UK.

The NHS’ target is for 95 per cent of patients to be treated within four hours.

But between 2018-2019, only 88 per cent of the 24.8 million people who visited A&E departments nationwide managed to be assisted in that time frame.

Jan Ingle, head of communications for the NHS’s East Suffolk and North Essex Foundation Trust said: “We work really hard to achieve the NHS’s target that 95 out 100 patients are admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.

“Although 93 per cent is still a high percentage, it is not where we want to be but if you look across the performances of similar trusts across the country, I am sure you will see we are doing quite well.

“Like most trusts, we had an exceptionally busy summer but we are determined to do everything we can to keep our promise and up that figure.”

The Department of Health has now unveiled plans to remove the four-hour standard waiting time in A&E.

However, it is set to introduce four new targets for hospitals to adhere to with a greater focus on prioritising the most critically ill and injured.

Medical experts, however, have blamed the rising waiting times on a series of factors, such as staff shortages, a lack of funding and an increased volume of people using A&E.

Dr Simon Walsh, of the British Medical Association, for example, believes more Government funding is urgently required if the waiting times in trauma units is to improve.

Mr Walsh said: “It is clear that significantly more investment is needed across the board to turn things around, both for our hardworking staff and the communities they serve.”