Newham University Hospital has failed to hit A&E waiting time targets again, new figures reveal.

The latest data show only 90.9 percent of patients at the Plaistow hospital were seen, admitted or discharged within four hours last month, a drop of 4pc since February 2016.

Nationally the target for hospitals is 95pc – a figure that NUH has failed to hit since July 2014.

Barts Health Trust, which manages NUH and four other hospitals, has seen 1,254 fewer people attend their A&E departments this year.

Unmesh Desai, Assembly member for City and East, said: “The worry is that this is no longer a winter crisis but a perennial crisis.

“The strain is taking its toll, with low morale setting in across the workforce.”

Barts Health recently announced last week that the hospital has been awarded £400,000 from the Department for Health to help ease the pressure on its A&E department.

“Whilst the additional money offered to Newham General Hospital is welcome, this is unlikely to fully address the A&E department’s major funding gap,” he added.

“Expecting hospitals in Newham and Tower Hamlets to carry on as they are with little, or no additional long term resource, is neither fair to patients, nor realistic.”

A spokeswoman from Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs Newham University Hospital, said: “Despite the busy winter months our Newham A&E team pulled together to care for 9 out of ten 90.9 per cent patients within four hours in February 2017.

“We are working to improve this by finding new ways to more efficiently assess and treat people so they can see senior clinicians more quickly, as well as recruiting more permanent staff and improving our discharge procedures.”