HOSPITAL chiefs have said they are confident of hitting a key target despite ‘exceptional’ numbers of patients attending A&E.

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust saw a 14 per cent rise in attendance at its emergency units in February.

But trust bosses predict they will meet their target of 95 per cent of people being seen within four hours of attending A&E during 2011-12.

The trust’s performance for the year currently stands at 96.59 per cent.

However, it was 94.59 in December, 95.42 per cent in January and slipped to 92.55 per cent in February.

A woman claimed two senior hospital managers personally moved her 82-year-old mother to another ward at Royal Blackburn Hospital on Sunday to avoid missing the target.

The woman, who described herself as an NHS worker but wished to remain anonymous, said: “My mother was within five to 10 minutes of breaching the four-hour target so two ladies came and moved her.

“The nurses were absolutely brilliant and the care my mum received was really good, but obviously the pressure is there if business managers have to push beds to make things appear to be on an even keel and make sure they don’t miss targets.”

The main reasons for patients waiting longer are waits for beds, delays in assessments and ‘clinical exceptions’, the medical term for non-mainstream conditions.

Speaking at the latest trust board meeting, Val Bertenshaw, operations director, said there had been an ‘exceptional’ number of people attending A&E.

On certain days the trust’s A&E unit has seen more than 550 cases. The record for any single day stands at 612.

Lynn Wissett, deputy chief executive, said: “We can have no more than 18 breaches per day – and at the moment we are having seven or eight breaches because of clinical exceptions. So you can see the size of the challenge that we have.”

Responding to the woman’s claims yesterday, Clare Clark, matron for emergency department and urgent care centres, said: “It is very difficult to comment unless specific instances are known. We would urge the person to get in touch with us so that we can look into the issues raised.

“It is important to note that, the quality of patient care is the priority at all times and all staff work to support and maintain this standard.”