The under-threat St Helier A&E department has among the lowest waiting times in London.

In recent months the A&E department, along with Epsom Hospital, has met the national target of treating patients within four hours in over 95 per cent of cases, with many other London trusts missing their targets substantially.

The Epsom and St Helier trust met the target 96.1 per cent of the time in October and the current November performance figure stands at 96.7 per cent.

The controversial Better Service Better Value’s (BSBV) healthcare review has threatened closure of St Helier’s A&E and maternity departments for two-and-a-half years.

BSBV faces an uncertain future after Surrey GPs pulled Epsom Hospital out of the review last week.

Chief operating officer of Epsom and St Helier trust, Jackie Sullivan, said: "This (exceeding the NHS target) is particularly good news for patients as A&E departments nationally are facing increasing pressure.

"I would like to thank our hard working staff across all of our sites for their efforts."

She said they will continue to strive for improvement.

The trust have still missed their target 19 weeks in the last year, meeting it 94.99 per cent of the time overall.

This figure is the seventh lowest out of 22 hospital trusts in the capital.

Figures released by the Mayor of London’s office show that many other London hospitals are failing to make their targets, with one trust not meeting the target in any week of the last year.

Ms Sullivan added: "Our absolute focus has been on ensuring care pathways are appropriate for patients.

"The care of our older population is paramount and in partnership with our local commissioners we have put specialist teams in place who ensure that patients are admitted when required, but cared for in their homes when possible."

The figures were released ahead of calls by NHS chiefs to introduce a two-tier A&E system in England with the biggest 40-70 A&E units becoming major emergency centres .

Under the proposals the remaining 70-100 A&Es would be known as emergency centres and would deal with less serious conditions.

Earlier this year it emerged that ambulances have been diverted away from St Helier Hospital’s A&E four times since 2012 because it was so busy.