THE trust running Redditch's Alexandra Hospital has been named and shamed as having one of the 10 worst A&E services for waits.

A BBC report says that A&E waiting times have reached their highest levels in England - and revealed the trusts with the worst individual waits.

Hospitals are meant to see 95 per cent of patients in four hours.

But the difficult winter means the NHS has recorded its worst-ever annual performance - at 88.4 per cent - since records began in 2004, NHS England data showed.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust, which runs the Alex Hospital as well as the Worcestershire Royal and Kidderminster Hospital, comes in at number 10 and only saw 78.9 per cent in four hours during 2017-18.

The single worst service was Princess Alexandra Hospital in Essex, which saw 70.9 per cent.

Ian Dalton, head of NHS Improvement, which regulates the health service, said hospitals were facing a "mammoth" task coping with rising numbers of patients, particularly the sickest that need to be admitted on to wards.

But he conceded: "Nobody working in the NHS will be happy with the effect this has had on how quickly we have seen and treated patients."

A spokesman for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said its services are continuing to face very high levels of demand.

“We have seen a year-on-year increase in people coming through our emergency departments (EDs) and with higher than expected numbers of seriously ill patients arriving by ambulance every day, we have experienced periods of considerable pressure," they said.

"Despite this, far fewer patients are having to endure long waits to be admitted to a ward.

“We are continuing to work with our partners in other local NHS organisations and the council to make sure all the health and care facilities in the county are being used to best effect so that patients can be offered suitable alternatives to ED where possible, and also to ensure that any patients in our hospitals who are medically fit can be discharged in a safe and timely manner to free up beds."