Stark new figures have revealed the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital was the worst in the country at hitting A&E targets in the past month.

Norwich Evening News: Norfolk and Norwich Unviersity Hosptial chief operating officer Chris Cobb. Picture: NNUHNorfolk and Norwich Unviersity Hosptial chief operating officer Chris Cobb. Picture: NNUH (Image: NNUH)

Of the patients seeking access to the hospital's (NNUH) front door services in September, 65.7pc were seen within the target four hour period - a percentage lower than every other facility in the country.

Nationally, the average percentage of people seen in this period of time was 85.4pc, a figure that was also greater than the county's other two hospitals - the James Paget in Gorleston and the Queen Elizabeth in King's Lynn. These hospitals saw 84.8pc and 79.9pc of patients within four hours respectively.

It comes following a particularly straining August for the NNUH, which saw increasing demand placed on the hospital's services,

This pressure continued into September, with the hospital's emergency department facing more than 420 people per day across the month - and more than 12,000 in total.

Chris Cobb, NNUH chief operating officer, said: "Our emergency department staff are doing a phenomenal job at a time when the numbers of emergency attendances and admissions continues to increase on a daily basis.

"They have been treating more than 420 patients a day - higher than the daily attendances during the winter months.

"We have made significant improvements in our department this year, which includes establishing a rapid assessment and treatment service at the front door and the implementation of assessment tools which identify patients who require the use of quiet rooms which we have created."

Mr Cobb added that the hospital had also made reductions in ambulance handover times so far in 2019/20 and had increased the numbers of staff in the department.

He added: "We continue to improve our services for patients attending our emergency department. We know we have more work to do and our staff are working diligently to make quality improvement changes that are patient focussed.

"Across the wider trust, we are building a new ward block at the hospital site which will open this coming winter and this will create extra medical capacity and help aid patient flow from the emergency department."