A Norwich hospital trust has been placed on a red status for governance after it missed three keys targets at the start of 2012.

The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the N&N and Cromer Hospital, was automatically put on the red status by Monitor, the body which oversees foundation trusts, because it missed three key targets in the last quarter of 2011-12, which covers January to March this year.

The status means there is a likely or significant breach in the trust's terms of authorisation and the hospital now has to convince Monitor that it has an appropriate plan in place to address the missed trio of failures.

The hospital was asked to ensure that it had no more than six cases of MRSA hospital-acquired infection, but ended the year with nine.

From January to the end of March, the N&N was only able to see 91pc of its A&E patients within four hours, caused by high demand and delays in discharging patients into the community.

It also missed the target for treating patients within 18 weeks, but over the last three months has reduced the number of patients waiting by 200.

Chief executive Anna Dugdale told a meeting of the N&N's governors last night that the hospital has a plan in place to recover its performance, and it now has to convince Monitor that that plan will be effective.

She said: 'It means we are red rated for the Monitor governance inspection.

'In April and May we have achieved all those targets we were struggling with, other than 18 weeks.'

Yesterday, the Department of Health published new figures which show that almost 50,000 fewer patients are waiting longer than 18 weeks to start treatment since May 2010.

The latest figures reveal that hospitals in 11 trusts in the East of England had no patients waiting longer than a year before starting treatment, including The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn, James Paget University Hospital in Gorleston, and West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds.

The NHS has taken action over the last six months to reduce the number of long waiters, by treating those who have been waiting the longest.