ROUGHLY three quarters of hospital patients in Worcestershire are seen within four hours, according to NHS data.

Using the NHS service search tool, we compared the average waiting times across Worcestershire's hospitals.

Worcestershire Royal Hospital has 77.70% of A&E patients seen within 4 hours and it is a similar picture across the county, with other hospitals showing similar numbers.

This number is the same at Pershore Community Hospital, which also has a percentage of 77.70.

This is below the national performance target of 95% of patients set by the NHS, though higher than similar hospitals in Herefordshire or Gloucestershire.

Comparisons for other hospitals in Worcestershire are not possible as there are no A&E departments at Droitwich Spa Hospital or Malvern Community Hospital.

For Mortality rate (in hospital and up to 30 days after discharge), Worcestershire's hospitals also rank favourably.

Worcestershire Royal Hospital and Pershore Community Hospital's mortality figures lie within the expected range.

No data is available for Droitwich or Malvern as the NHS does not have data available for independent or specialist hospitals.

By contrast, the County Hospital in Herefordshire sees 75.80% of patients seen within four hours.

In Gloucestershire, Cheltenham General Hospital sees 74.40% of patients seen within four hours.

To compare hospital performance data where you live, go to www.nhs.uk/service-search/other-services/Hospital/LocationSearch/7/Hospitals

There you can type in locations across the country and compare the data for different hospital trusts nationwide.

In an interview with Worcester News back in April, Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust chief Matthew Hopkins said he expected it to take two years before hospitals returned to pre-covid levels.

Mr Hopkins said: “We are back to pre-Covid levels of capacity in our diagnostic tests.

“In terms of our urgent patients that need to be brought in again for surgery, we are seeing them quickly again now.

“For the routine non urgent care it is going to be a good year or more, possibly two years, before we are back to pre-Covid waiting times.

“Over the course of the last year our waiting list has grown by a third, and we are still adding people to it.

“We would actually want to improve them (waiting times) because the people of Worcestershire have had to wait longer than average, so we are keen for better waiting times - but that is going to take a couple of years."