THE four-hour target of patients being seen in A&E is still not being met, but improvement plans are in place.

A meeting of the Wye Valley Trust board of directors was told that July's A&E performance was 84 per cent against the national standard of 95 per cent.

High volumes of A&E attendances throughout July created pressure within the emergency department and led to a deterioration in performance.

But Jane Ives, managing director of the trust, said a number of plans are in place and she is hoping that the figure will improve during the next few months.

The trust's referral treatment times are also below the national target of 92 per cent, with 74.8 per cent of patients being seen within the required time.

A new patient administration system has been introduced which will record data more efficiently.

The trust also wants to reduce the number of patients waiting for treatment over 52 weeks. In July, 64 patients were waiting for longer than a year.

Mrs Ives said: "The patients who are waiting for 52 weeks. We have a commitment to have none of those waiting by October. A lot of work is going on to make sure we have done that."