LATEST figures show Great Western Hospital’s A&E department is failing to reach a national benchmark for treatment times.

The NHS releases weekly figures analysing the performances of A&E departments across the country with the latest stats – for the period ending March 30 – showing 87.5 per cent of patients were seen within four hours.

NHS England sets a target for of wanting 95 per cent of A&E patients to be dealt with within that length of time.

The hospital insists that during busy periods it prioritises those in urgent need of care which could affect their figures.

The best performing local A&E department was at Salisbury District Hospital which saw 97.7 per cent within the four hours, while Bath's Royal United Hospital, Bath scored 94.5 per cent.

A Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust spokesman said: “Our priority is to provide safe and high-quality care to each patient.

"The four-hour national target is not a measure of the time taken for patients to be seen by a doctor or nurse but, in fact, the time taken to either discharge, admit or transfer that patient.

“All patients who arrive at our emergency department in need of urgent care will, of course, be given medical attention at the earliest opportunity.

“Patients are seen in order of clinical need and when our department is very busy less urgent patients may sometimes have to wait longer than we would like.

“We always strive to treat patients in a timely manner. However, many of our patients are elderly, frail or have multiple conditions which require complex diagnostic tests before decisions can be made about their ongoing care and treatment.

“We would like to thank all our dedicated staff, who work very hard to maintain high-quality services for patients during busier times.”

Over the winter, A&E departments across the country were stretched, with some declaring "major incidents".

GWH didn’t do this but they failed to meet the four-hour target. This forced GWH to postpone non-urgent operations and a medical tent was erected at the hospital as a precaution but wasn’t used.

In an attempt to support their staff, the hospital regularly reminds the public to seek alternative help for when they’ve suffered minor health issues in a bid attempt to ease A&E strain.

Nationally, the NHS in England has missed its four-hour A&E target for the past three months with the performance dropping to its lowest level for a decade. Between January and March, figures show that 91.8 per cent of patients were being seen in the timeframe.

The A&E target was introduced at the end of 2004 when the NHS wanted to see 98 per cent of patients in that period. It was reduced to 95 per cent in 2010 after doctors argued the pressure was affecting their decision-making.