SHOCKING figures reveal Bolton is home to nearly 5,000 lonely older people.

The figure was revealed by the town's Age UK as it seeks to reduce the numbers of elderly people being re-admitted to hospital.

Chef executive Suzanne Holton told the Bolton Health and Wellbeing Board that the charity had faced a challenge of hospital admissions and increasing lengths of stays since it launched in the town in October 2014. She said: "There is an epidemic of loneliness with 1.2 million older people aged over 65 saying they feel lonely all the time and the television is their only companion. The latest estimates has 4,600 older people in Bolton as falling into that category.

"The difficulty for many is families are at a distance. Apart from the human impact and quality of life, we know from research what isolation does to health and emotional wellbeing.

"We are looking at the real costs on individuals, the worry it causes to families and the massive financial cost to the health and social care system."

Since starting its work in the town, Age UK Bolton has supported 1,931 people, helping around 800 a year.

Numbers of recorded clients have dropped from 854 between April 2015 and March 2016 to 759 between March 2017 to April 2016, which Ms Hilton was said was due to more 'intensive care' to prevent a return to the service.

Age UK is based both in The Square in Victoria Square and Royal Bolton Hospital.

Support provided include creating friendships, community transport, information and advice, cleaning homes and helping with day to day tasks such as shopping.

Ms Hilton added: "We like think we are making a positive contribution to bringing overall hospital admissions down.

"I am particularly pleased to think that the average 65 plus person we are supporting are the most vulnerable of that cohort. It is not just about readmission figures, but what we are doing for people by aiding recovery and long-term wellbeing."

Nationally, it has been found that two thirds of people admitted to hospitals are aged 65 and over, with patients staying longer and readmission rising by 88 percent from 2004 to 2014, costing the NHS £2.2 billion over 30 days.

Wirin Bhatiani, chairman of Bolton NHS Clinical Commissioning Group, said: "This position about loneliness is a real issue. There are lots of people who lose confidence, we see that all the time in our surgeries.

"The loss of confidence in an older person means the ability to look after yourself goes down very quickly.

"I really want to support this work but it's a little bit of shame that it's focussing on readmission. A huge number of people end up in hospital when they don't to to because of the effect of loss of confidence.

"If you don't connect with primary care and community teams then the uptake at hospitals will continue."