Most recent figures showing emergency department performance for the July to September 2014 quarter indicate just over two-thirds of patients (67 per cent) who presented at Dubbo Hospital emergency department left within four hours.

In the same period the previous year, that figure was 55 per cent.

The figures from the Bureau of Health Information showed Dubbo Hospital's performance was slightly below the NSW average (69 per cent), which also fell short of the benchmark of 81 per cent.

For Orange and Bathurst hospitals, the figures were 77 per cent and 75 per cent respectively.

Earlier this month the NSW Opposition accused the government of secretly dropping its national benchmark to treat NSW hospital emergency patients within four hours, saying it had abandoned the National Emergency Access Target (NEAT) "to hide the state of NSW health and its failure to properly fund emergency departments".

As of January 1, 2015, under the NEAT, NSW hospitals were meant to process 90 per cent of patients through emergency departments within four hours, where previously it was 81 per cent, NSW Shadow Health Minister Walt Secord said.

But NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner said the state's hospitals were committed to seeing emergency department patients within the four-hour benchmark, and would continue to apply the 2014 target of 81 per cent pending the outcome of a clinical review into whether 90 per cent was a clinically-safe, long-term goal.

When it came to so-called "peer group" hospitals in the same category as Dubbo Hospital, the average percentage of patients who left the emergency department within four hours was the same as the NSW rate (69 per cent).

Of that group Blacktown Hospital's performance was the worst (49 per cent), while Manly District Hospital performed the best (86 per cent).