The hospital has improved its performance in the past few months

Leicester Royal Infirmary was given until the end of March to ensure 90% of patients were dealt with in four hours.

But results published on Monday showed the hospital was dealing with 78% of patients within the four-hour deadline.

Peter Reading, the hospital's chief executive, defended the figures.

He said: "This is not a story of failure, but a story of improvement over a short period of time by our dedicated accident and emergency staff.

'Amazing transformation'

"We had a department struggling to meet its target a year ago and we only had 40% of people getting seen in the four-hour target time.

"We are now at 78% and that is an amazing transformation in three months."

Mr Reading added: "The department was built to cope with 70,000 people a year, but it actually sees 110,000 so it is very crowded.

"We have introduced new working practices, including a minor injuries unit and a primary care centre and a new ward in the past few months."

He said the figure should improve again over the next few months.

The University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust spent �130,000 on creating a temporary A&E ward at the hospital to ease waiting times.

A trust spokesman said it was also exceeding targets for seeing children.