Kingston Hospital bosses have denied claims that accident and emergency is at "breaking point" after weeks of high admissions and missed targets.

London Assembly member Murad Qureshi made the claim in an attack on Government health policy.

He said: "Patients in Kingston are paying for years of costly reorganisation and health service closures.

"Services have faced a Christmas of crisis as a result of the strain they are operating under.

"The Government must change course before the NHS crisis we are experiencing in Kingston becomes a permanent fixture."

Accident and emergency was "rapidly approaching breaking point", he added.

But Kingston Hospital deputy chief executive Charles Bruce said that was "not at all" the case.

He said: "I think it's a very dramatic statement.

"We've had probably three peaks of activity which are above and beyond usual.

"That always puts pressure on the system."

Hospitals must ensure 95 per cent of patients are treated, admitted to hospital or transferred elsewhere within four hours of arriving.

Between December 29 and January 4 the figure in Kingston was 90.8 per cent - still among the highest in England.

A BBC tracking tool also showed 136 beds were "blocked" that week - meaning patients had finshed treatment but could not be discharged.

Dr Bruce said: "Yes, we're below the 95 per cent but when you look at the numbers coming through, at the times that they're coming through, I think it's also about the way the whole system works - not just the hospital."

Dr Bruce said delays were caused partly by having to treat and discharge a "significant number" of emergency patients aged 85 or over with multiple complex conditions.

He said: "It takes time for them to get better. The issue for us has been the delayed transfer of care.

"We can get the patients to the point where they're medically stable either to go home or to go to an intermediate care facility, but especially over Christmas and new year we didn't have the downstream capacity so people were staying in hospital."