More A&E patients being dealt with in four hours at Shropshire hospitals

But the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust missed the Government target for seeing 95 per cent of patients within four hours for the 31st week in a row.

NHS England figures show 90.1 per cent of patients of the 2,153 patients going into Royal ShrewsburyHospital and Telford's Princess Royal Hospital A&E departments last week were treated, admitted or discharged in four hours. Of those people, 450 were admitted.

That number, for the week ending last Sunday, was better than the 83.9 per cent per cent for the week before and the 81.8 per cent for the week before that.

The figures remain an improvement on some of the numbers seen since Christmas when A&E units were stretched to breaking point.

The national percentage figure, according to the new statistics, is 94.3 per cent - up from 93.3 per cent the week before.

The figures were the best for months, even though the target was still missed.

There are currently just 31 hospital trusts in the country meeting the 95 per cent gold standard, with 109 major A&E trusts missing it, including Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust.

Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust today declined to comment.

But Dr Barbara Hakin, national director of commissioning operations for NHS England, said: "These latest performance figures are a great credit to everyone given the continuing pressure on the service."

NHS England also released its latest figures for its NHS 111 phone line service.

Nearly 1.1 million calls were received in March , representing 36,700 a day, similar to that in February. There were 105,300 emergency admissions, up on the 104,900 in the previous week.

Of calls answered, 92.1 per cent were done so within 60 seconds, fewer than in February (93.2 per cent) and the average for 2014 (92.9 per cent).

An NHS England spokesman said: "NHS 111 handled more than 1.1 million calls in February, with 92 per cent of those being answered in under 60 seconds.

"The service continues to do an excellent job in supporting patients and in terms of protecting both A&E and ambulance services from unnecessary attendances and call outs.

"Of the calls NHS 111 triaged just 11 per cent led to an ambulance being dispatched and only eight per cent of patients were recommended to attend A&E."