HEALTH bosses in Bolton have warned there could be trouble ahead as it risks missing waiting times targets.

Bolton A&E has been set a goal for making sure 90 per cent of attendees are admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours of arrival.

However, at the latest meeting of the NHS Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) board members were warned that it could miss the NHS England target.

CCG chief officer Su Long said: "We have applied a huge amount of effort and energy into the system for support and to ensure there is more flow through the hospital from the A&E and it has had some gains.

"The level of effort put in by the team is not sustainable on a daily basis but we are committed to an action plan until the end of December.

"Whilst we have made daily improvements but the news so far is we won't achieve the the 90 per cent which will have consequences on Bolton and financial penalties on the trust.

"Right now we have to attempt to have more of those better days and consolidate on the improvements to create a balanced picture. There is a lot of effort going into it."

Bolton CCG and Bolton NHS Foundation trust have a joint responsibility to meet targets set by NHS England.

The Royal Bolton Hospital was given a separate target of 90 per cent by England's health bosses as it has struggled to meet the national monthly target of 95 per cent.

In July just under 83 per cent of patients were seen within the four-hour target but this dropped to 78.2 percent in August.

So far this month the average percentage was just over 84 per cent by September 15.

Attendances to Bolton A&E have fallen in the last 12 months and Dr Barry Silvert, clinical director for commissioning at the CCG, warned that there was no direct correlation between the number of people going to the department and performance rates.

He explained that varying performance rates often made it look like they were doing well but they could not rest on their laurels.

He added: "The last few days we actually had were a mix, the weekend was really awful but on Monday it picked up a little bit. What I'm trying to say is one swallow doesn't make summer. it looks a lot more encouraging over the last three weeks than in a long time."