Trusts miss targets - but still among best in UK.

HALF of the North East's NHS Trusts failed to hit waiting time targets, figures have revealed.

Newcastle NHS Trust, City Hospitals Sunderland, Northumbria Healthcare, and North Tees & Hartlepool all failed to hit key waiting time figures, according to the recently published statistics.

North East trusts performed well nationally, with all eight ranked within the top 20 of the UK's 134 NHS Trusts.

Trusts are tasked with ensuring 95% of A&E patients are treated or admitted within four hours of arriving at hospital.

However, both the Newcastle and Sunderland NHS Trusts failed to hit this target during September.

Only 94.4% of patients in Newcastle were seen within four hours, while the figure dropped to 94.1% in Sunderland.

A spokeswoman for Newcastle upon Tyne NHS Trust, which is ranked outstanding by the Care Quality Commission overall, said it was working hard to achieve its targets and never "closed its doors to patients".

Dr Sean Fenwick, director of operations at City Hospitals Sunderland, said: "Although we have fractionally missed some of the national standards in September by just 1%, our results remain well above the national average."