THE reports in the Bolton Evening News, October 26 and 29, about the A & E Department and the Royal Bolton Hospital's "bid to be world leader", cannot be allowed to pass without comment.

David Fillingham, Chief Executive, states that the A & E Department has gone from being the worst performer in the country to one of the best, on the basis that, in September, 96.7 per cent of patients were seen within the four-hour target.

Unfortunately that is not the end of the story.

After a patient has been seen, which may not be for nearly four hours, and it has been decided to admit them, they still have to wait until a bed is found.

This is not acceptable, particularly for the many who are elderly.

He also says that they are managing discharging of patients better to free-up beds.

This statement, however, does not sit easily alongside a previous star rated report that the number of patients who had to be re-admitted after discharge was above average in other words, patients were being discharged too soon.

The elderly are the ones put most at risk by this practice.I hope Mr Fillingham can turn the hospital round, but he faces an impossible task. Without any help from the Government to resolve the huge financial deficit, he will not be able to resolve the basic problems of shortage of beds and nurses, particularly experienced ones.

The Government is again using spin with no delivery. These comments are based upon the personal experience of accompanying an elderly patient to the hospital on numerous occasions during the last three years, and through the A & E Department several times in the last 12 months.

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