WORCESTERSHIRE hospitals could receive up to £500,000 in cash incentives to meet targets they are repeatedly missing.

Since September, Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust has continually failed to deal with 90 per cent of its accident and emergency patients within four hours of them walking into the county's hospitals.

Now health chiefs fear it is "very unlikely" it will meet a new higher target of dealing with 98 per cent of its A&E patients within four hours by the end of March next year.

Hopes are now pinned on a radical new scheme that will see the trust awarded £500,000 if it achieves the goal.

The scheme works by paying the trust £100,000 every three months, from now until March next year - but only if it proves it is on track to meet the new 98 per cent target.

The trust runs Worcestershire Royal Hospital, Kidderminster Hospital and the Alexandra, in Redditch.

The latest figures reveal the trust is almost five per cent off the 90 per cent target - having dealt with an average of 85.7 per cent of emergency patients within four hours between mid-December last year and January 11 this year.

The figures were revealed at a meeting on Wednesday of the West Midlands South Strategic Health Authority, which runs the trust.

Mike Marchment, chief executive of the authority, says the urgent step is vital.

"There is no doubt something needs to be done in order for this target to be met," he told the authority's board members.

John Rostill, chief executive of the trust, welcomed the news.

"This is a really good incentive and as it is paid out gradually can spend that money helping us achieve the target," she said.

"We will be using it to the best of our ability."

He blamed the trust's failure to meet the target on a rise in emergency admissions and said a team had been formed to come up with an action plan.