Kingston Hospital has been awarded £100,000 after meeting Government accident and emergency department waiting targets the only hospital in south west London to do so.

Kingston's A&E department is now recognised as one of the best in the country and has been given the cash as part of a financial incentive scheme to speed up A&E care. A total of £500,000 is available between now and next March if the hospital stays on track for waiting times.

The money will be used to refurbish medical wards and the clinical decision unit.

Health secretary Dr John Reid wrote to hospital bosses personally to congratulate them on hitting the target. He said: "This is just one example of how the NHS is getting better, thanks to Government investment and staff working harder and in new ways."

The hospital has also met its targets in day surgery and inpatient and outpatient appointment waiting times.

It is now in line to meet the maximum waiting time of three months for an outpatient appointment and six months for an operation by the end of 2005.

Hospital chief executive Carole Heatly said: "Collectively our staff have made a difference to the people of Kingston and the patients who use our hospital.

"It is only through their commitment and hard work that we have made this tremendous achievement possible in such a short amount of time and I am incredibly proud of them."

The A&E target has been met through a combination of measures. These include the introduction of a clinical decision unit, a new IT programme providing up-to-the-minute information on bed availability, and measures for estimating expected numbers of emergency admissions. Together they have contributed to 95 per cent of patients going in and out of A&E within four hours.

Dr Maria Lynch, lead consultant for emergency care, told the Comet: "Once patients are on the clinical decision unit and all investigations have been completed, a decision is made to either admit, transfer or discharge the patient there and then.

"This means decisions are made much more quickly, which improves the quality of patient care."

djudge@london.newsquest.co.uk