PEOPLE are invited to a meeting to discuss the state of the NHS in Bolton — and to stop it suffering from further cuts.

Health campaigners in Bolton have arranged the meeting at which a doctor will be the guest speaker.

Christine Howarth from Bolton Save our NHS Group said the meeting is being called after hearing firsthand from people who work in it about what is happening in the service.

The group has seen drafts of Bolton Locality Plan, which is proposals for the future of health and social care in Bolton over the next five years. The latest draft suggests that by 2020 there could be a funding gap of £83 million. However, Bolton Save our NHS claim previous figures of between £116 million and £162 million have been quoted.

Mrs Howarth said: “We cannot allow an even smaller hospital and £116 million more cuts to Bolton NHS.

“We hear from staff that Bolton hospital is increasingly often on ‘black status’ when ambulances are diverted as there are no beds.

“What will it be like if they close more? Older people are being denied care, told to ‘self help’ and are frightened. Black status means that “service delivery is below acceptable levels despite actions taken and special arrangements are made “until services can return to an acceptable level”.

Bolton Save our NHS Group says it hopes to raise awareness of the “scale of the cuts and bed closures proposed and to begin to mobilise more people to oppose these dangerous cuts”.

It pointed to figures showing the NHS has half the beds it had in 1987 with England now having the second lowest number of beds per 1,000 in the EU, at only 2.6 compared to 5.2 EU average and 8.2 for Germany.

Campaigners added that occupancy figures need to be 85 per cent or below to be safe, yet in January, 2017 were 95 per cent nationally and 96.5 per cent in Bolton — leading they say to more infections, more cancelled and delayed operations, more pain and more deaths.

At the start of the month people from Bolton travelled to London to take part in the national Save our NHS demonstrations.

Campaigners say Government cuts will leave a financial gap of  between £116 million and £162 million for health and care in Bolton by 2020.

The British Medical Association (BMA) recently warned that patients are being unfairly let down by a lack of beds in hospitals.

Dr Mark Porter, BMA council chairman said: “These figures paint an even bleaker picture of an NHS that is at breaking point.High bed occupancy is a symptom of wider pressure and demand on an overstretched and underfunded system. It causes delays in admissions, operations being cancelled and patients being unfairly and sometimes repeatedly let down. The delays that vulnerable patients are facing, particularly those with mental health issues, have almost become the norm and this is unacceptable.”

The meeting will be held on Thursday at 7.30pm at the Friends' Meeting House in Silverwell Street.

The speaker will be Dr Jackie Grunsell, a GP from Huddersfield.

Su Long, chief officer at NHS Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “Bolton’s Locality Plan is a response by all health and social care partners in Bolton to the level of funding we expect to receive over the next five years.”

According to data provided by NHS England available from the start of December to mid March, Royal Bolton Hospital has only diverted one ambulance per day between December 27 and 29.