The number of patients waiting more than four hours in hospital accident and emergency departments has jumped by 40 per cent in a year, figures show.

Nearly 900,000 were delayed for this length of time in 2011/10 compared to just under 600,000 in 2009/10.

Last year the Government scrapped a target brought in by Labour that 98 per cent of A&E patients must be seen within four hours claiming it had ‘no clinical justification’

via Mail Online.