NEW figures show that one in four emergency patients treated in hospital last year didn’t need to be there.

According to the National Audit, around 1.5 million patients taken to A & E could have been treated by GPs, nurses or at walk-in centres. Emergency admissions rose by 24 per cent to 5.8 million in 2016/17 which costs the NHS £13.7 billion.

Staff at the Royal Bolton Hospital don’t need telling about this: they see it every day and still manage to show patience and caring dealing with everyone. When will we all learn what Accident and Emergency actually means?