The health trust which oversees Redbridge’s only general hospital is the slowest  in London for treating A&E patients, the latest NHS figures reveal.

Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust (BHRUT) admitted, transferred or discharged 86.4 per cent of A&E patients within four hours in the week ending June 16.

The trust, which oversees King George Hospital in Goodmayes and Queen’s Hospital in Romford, joined Barnet and Chase Farm (88.9 per cent) and North Middlesex (93.8 per cent) as the only London trusts to miss the government target of 95 per cent.

Plans to close A&E services at King George and move them to Queen’s are on hold while the trust works to meet Care Quality Commission targets.

BHRUT Chief Executive Averil Dongworth said the London Ambulance Service was bringing nine per cent more patients to Queen’s A&E in 2012/13 than the previous year and that King George had experienced a four per cent rise.

She said: “Performance is weaker at Queen’s Hospital than King George Hospital. As a trauma centre it deals with more seriously ill patients and receives far more blue light ambulances."

She added that reducing waits for patients in A&E is BHRUT’S highest priority, and emphasised the trust was working hard to recruit more permanent staff for its emergency departments.

And she said:  “Dedicated work to improve the situation has seen our vacancy rate for emergency care staff drop from 45 per cent to 18 per cent in recent months.

“An enormous amount of work is taking place as we work towards meeting the emergency access target, but we recognise the need to sustain improvements in our performance.”