THE Andover Minor Injuries Unit came in for special praise at a hospital trust board meeting for its major contribution to meeting stiff government targets.

Month after month the MIU achieves 100 per cent of patients being admitted, discharged or transferred within four hours of arrival - against a target of 98 per cent.

Joanna Paul, director of operations at Winchester and East-leigh Healthcare NHS Trust, said: "This is a very challenging target with only two per cent tolerance for patients to breach this standard due to clinical or other reasons."

In February, once again, all 902 of people attending the MIU were dealt with inside the four hours.

At the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in the same month 2,966 out of the 3,001 patients at the Accident and Emer-gency department were dealt with inside the target time.

That represented 98.8 per cent - itself within the Gover-nment target.

But with Andover's performance the trust as a whole hit a target of 99.1 per cent.

For the full story see Friday's Andover Advertiser.