Ipswich Hospital hit the Government’s target of treating 95% of A&E patients within four hours for the first time since the start of last December, figures showed today.

Statistics released by NHS England showed that 96.6% of 1,398 patients who attended the hospital’s emergency department were admitted, transferred or discharged within the four-hour limit in the week ending January 18.

It was one of only 39 major hospitals out of 140 nationwide which hit the target. It was ranked the 21st best-performing hospital in England and the best in the East of England.

The figure also represents an improvement on the previous week, when it stood at 91.6% of 1,426 A&E patients.

The last time the hospital reached the Government standard of 95% was in the week ending December 7.

An Ipswich Hospital spokesman said: “These latest figures represent both our commitment to see patients as quickly as possible and an enormous amount of hard work from our staff across the whole hospital. We are very delighted.”

The national average rose to 92.4% for the week ending January 18, up from 89.8% in the previous week.

Meanwhile, West Suffolk Hospital failed to hit the Government’s target of treating 95% of A&E patients within four hours for the eighth consecutive week.

The statistics showed 94.1% of 1,039 patients who attended the emergency department at the hospital in Bury St Edmunds were seen within four hours in the week ending January 18.

It was higher than the national average and an improvement on the previous week, when the figure stood at 83.2% of 1,126 A&E patients, and a significant rise from the week ending January 4 when it was 76.9% of 1,167 A&E patients.

However, the hospital has still not met the Government target of 95% since the week ending November 23 last year.

Jon Green, chief operating officer at West Suffolk Hospital, said: “We are pleased our performance has continued to improve and that the vast majority of people who came to our emergency department during the week were seen, treated and discharged quickly, even though the hospital remained very busy.

“This is a testament to our staff, who have been working incredibly hard to care for large numbers of very sick patients while ensuring everyone receives the care they need.”

The hospital was ranked the 48th best, up from 104.

Meanwhile, Colchester General Hospital, ranked as the worst-performing hospital in England for the week ending January 11, moved up to fourth-bottom (137th out of 140) after 75.6% of A&E patients – the total has not yet been disclosed – were assessed and admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.

A spokesman for the hospital said: “While, clearly, we need to improve our performance against this standard, our performance is better than the preceding two weeks – 71.8% and 64% respectively.

“We remind people that A&E should always be used only for critical or life-threatening situations requiring medical attention, such as loss of consciousness, heavy blood loss, suspected broken bones, persistent chest pain, difficulty breathing, overdoses, signs of a stroke, ingestion or poisoning.

“We would like to thank our staff and our partner organisations, such as the ambulance service, North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group and local authorities, for their continuing support to help us provide the high quality and safe care rightly expected by our patients.”