LONG waits for emergency treatment and doctor's appointments are set to undermine health service ratings in Fareham and Gosport.

Health bosses have warned that failing services in two of nine areas could mean a downgrade in performance ratings.

Ian Piper, chief executive of the Fareham and Gosport Primary Care Trust (PCT), has told the board to prepare for a one star rating for last year's performance.

One star, down from the two stars awarded last year, would result from failures to hit government targets for delivering access to a GP within 48 hours and reducing total time spent in accident and emergency to under four hours.

It comes as the trust reveals it is suffering staff shortages. There are 108 vacancies, of which more than half (66) are for support staff. Twenty-two support staff have left during the last financial year - mostly for career development reasons - while the number of managers and administrators has grown from 149 to 170.

At a public meeting of the trust, Mr Piper said: "Of the nine targets, we believe we have delivered seven and two which we are not sure yet whether we have delivered successfully or not.

"If the worst comes to the worst we could lose a star. We are not going to know until the final figures are published in July."

Star ratings - with three being the highest - were introduced by the government last year to enable people to compare PCTs.

They are measured on nine key targets:

Access to a primary healthcare practitioner in 24 hours.

Drug misuse treatment services.

Financial management.

Four-week smoking quitters.

Improving working lives.

Outpatients waiting longer than the standard.

Patients waiting longer than the standard for elective admission.

Access to a GP in 48 hours.

Total time in A&E less than four hours.

The trust has missed its target on the last two.

For GP access within 48 hours the government guideline is 100 per cent with Fareham and Gosport PCT achieving 79 per cent, an improvement on last year's 58 per cent.

Ninety per cent of A&E times should be less than four hours. The trust has just missed that at 85 per cent.

However, as revealed in the Daily Echo on Wednesday, the trust has met its financial obligation to break even, despite a £780,000 deficit just five months ago.