FARNHAM Hospital has re-opened its fourth ward to try and ease additional winter pressures on the NHS locally.

The extra ward, opened on January 5 to offer extra support for patients, is part of the hospital’s winter plan and is something that has been done in previous years.

In a statement, the North East Hampshire and Farnham NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said: “Due to the increased number of patients who had sustained orthopaedic injuries, a decision was made between Frimley Health Foundation NHS Trust and North East Hampshire & Farnham CCG in December that the ward in Farnham hospital would be opened on January 5 for a specific period to support these additional patients.”

It comes as a BBC online tool enabling people to check their local health trust, shows that Frimley Health NHS Trust is falling short of the 95 per cent target for A&E waiting times.

The target states that 95 per cent of patients should be seen within four hours of visiting A&E, but Frimley Health was only reaching around 84 per cent of this four hour target, December figures show.

This ranked Frimley Health at 61 out of 133 trusts nationwide, and of those only three are hitting the 95 per cent target.

But regarding cancer care, Frimley Health NHS Trust was in fact beating targets of 85 per cent by almost 10 per cent according to November figures, ranking the trust fourth out of 134 trusts.

The trust also hit the 92 per cent target for planned operations & care, meaning 92.6 per cent of patients were waiting less than 18 weeks, according to November figures.