Hospital chiefs, who called in extra staff to make sure they met a government performance target, have defended their action.

Winchester's Royal Hampshire County Hospital admits it drafted in agency nurses and extended shifts in Accident and Emergency for the week in which the department was assessed.

The result was that A&E met its target of treating and discharging, admitting or transferring 90% of patients within four hours.

Chief executive of the Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare Trust, Rod Halls, said lessons had been learned.

"Of course we wanted to do well that week. Hitting the target is a huge boost because it shows what can be done. Our figures are the result of hard work and new ideas - not just extra hours."

The emergency action is likely to have budget implications but the dilemma for the trust is that if it doesn't meet targets, it might lose government funding.

"We are between a rock and a hard place," said a spokesman. "We want to meet our targets and we want to meet our budgetary requirements."

Among the new ideas which the trust hopes will help it meet targets is an Emergency Services Collaborative which includes the "see and treat" approached employed for the A&E assessement.

It enables patients with minor injuries and less-serious conditions to be diagnosed quickly and treated without the need for admission.

Figures show the trust has made inroads on waiting times in general in the year ending April.

The number of people waiting for admission to the RHCH came down from 722 to 436. However, it's still a long way off the target of 143.

Outpatient targets were met with no-one waiting more than 21 weeks for a first consultant appointment; no patient had waited more than 12 months for a day case or in-patient operation and most were seen within six months.

Chairman of the trust, Barbara North, said: "The board and the community owe a huge debt of thanks to staff who've worked in difficult circumstances this year.

"We've had more days on red alert than ever before, mainly caused by a lack of available beds and winter pressures, so it's extremely gratifying to be able to say: "Well done, we did it!'"

Over the past year, bed-blocking was an important issue and the trust spokesman said it would be working with social services and the primary care trusts to improve the situation.

A group had been set up to monitor waiting lists and additional funding has been secured to undertake a number of orthopaedic procedures in the private sector.

Christine Allen, joint chief officer of Winchester and Central CHC, congratulated the trust on "a really good job".

"Although it has been beset with problems because of delayed patient discharges over the past year, it has achieved a great deal," she added.