WEST Dorset's flagship hospital is meeting national figures for the time patients wait for treatment in accident and emergency units (A&E).

A new report from the National Audit Office (NAO) reveals that in 2002 23 per cent of patients waited more than four hours in emergency units, but in the three months April-June 2004, only 5.3 per cent waited that long.

At the West Dorset General Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester, 96 per cent of patients were seen in A&E within four hours during April to June.

The NAO report goes on to say that despite improvements half of the country's NHS trusts do not have enough A&E staff to provide a proper round-the-clock service.

The report, Improving Emergency Care in England, said many hospitals faced difficulties recruiting staff, even when funding was in place.

Changes to the provision of GP out-of-hours services and reductions in junior doctors' working hours also posed risks to A&E services, the report said. The survey of 126 trusts in England found that shortages in A&E clinical staff were common.

They found that 84 per cent of trusts reported a shortage of nurses compared with funded posts, 43 per cent said there was a shortage of permanent consultants and 55 per cent reported a lack of other medical staff.

Since April, GPs have been able to opt out of providing out-of-hours care for patients, which instead is handled by primary care trusts, private sector contractors or ambulance trusts, for example.

The report said that the full effect of the changes to out-of-hours care on the rest of the emergency care system had yet to be felt and there were risks. "From our visits and surveys we found concerns that failure to integrate the new services adequately could result in increased pressure on A&E departments," it said.

Nick Cox, chief executive of the West Dorset General Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "We have been meeting the A&E target of seeing 96 per cent of patients within four hours and are currently monitoring the impact of the changes in the out-of-hours service. We have been strengthening staffing in A&E and appointed a second A&E consultant and two middle grade doctors as well as more nurses."