When it comes to Government targets, our hospitals can never win.

They are damned if they fall short of them, and they are damned if they use all possible means to meet them.

Whether the latter is happening in the accident and emergency department at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford is in dispute.

Oxford GP Tia MacGregor, who spent two months there, is adamant she saw children being hurried out of A&E as the four-hour deadline approached.

She says the juggling caused friction and arguments among staff. She fears that targets were put before patient care.

But her claims have been firmly denied by the hospital, which says that patients are moved from A&E to other wards only for observation.

Dr MacGregor is not only an Oxford GP, but a Liberal Democrat member of Oxford City Council.

As such, she has a political axe to grind with the Government which introduced the targets.

The key questions are whether what is or isn't happening in A&E is causing stress to patients and staff and creating health risks, and whether there have been complaints from anyone.

Dr MacGregor has made some general points, but has yet to produce the evidence.

Whatever one's views on targets, they appear to have dispensed with those regular, abominable 12-hour or more waits in A&E.