A FRANTIC eight-hour search for an intensive care bed for a Bolton grandmother went from Chorley to Sheffield, to Pontefract, to Newcastle, and finally on to Huddersfield.

A helicopter was even chartered during the desperate hunt to take the critically ill pensioner to the Tyneside hospital . . . but a pilot could not be found.

The RAF was contacted without luck. But while a pilot was being sought, a bed was found closer to home in Huddersfield.

Mrs Gwen Charnock, 60, from Tonge Fold, lay in a recovery room of an operating theatre in Royal Bolton Hospital while the search for the bed went on.

When she arrived at the Huddersfield hospital her family was told she had only a 50-50 chance of survival. Fortunately she has since pulled through. But her daughter, Linda Boulderstone, from Darcy Lever, described her anger when she read in Friday's BEN how an intensive care bed would have been lying empty in the Bolton hospital while the desperate search for her mother was taking place.

As revealed in the paper, Bolton hospital bosses have finally been given the go ahead to use the bed which had been unused for months due to a lack of funding.

The critically ill grandmother had been admitted into hospital suffering from a severe chest infection. However, by the following morning - New Year's Eve - her condition had deteriorated.

An intensive care bed was needed and when the family was told there were none in Bolton, the search began.

Mrs Boulderstone said: "Eventually, a bed was found in Newcastle. They said they definitely had it, but because of the distance, a helicopter would have to fly her there. "I was going to follow by car with my brother.

"Then we heard there were no pilots available to fly the helicopter. They had all done their air time. The hospital even asked the RAF for help, but they couldn't.

"Luckily while they were searching for a pilot, the bed came up in Huddersfield, and she was driven there."

After six days Mrs Charnock was able to come off the ventilator and was brought back to Bolton.

Mrs Boulderstone said: "It was a very traumatic time, but now I am just glad that mum is on the mend.

"The Bolton doctors and nurses were fantastic. In no way could I criticise the staff at Bolton. I know it's not their fault, but it is annoying to think of that bed lying empty when there was such a struggle to find somewhere for my mum."

A spokesman for the hospital said: "The intensive care service has recently been under huge pressure nationally, not just in Bolton, and regretfully that has resulted in some patients having to be transferred to other hospitals, sometimes a long distance away. "We have been pressing urgently for funds to open a sixth intensive care bed in Bolton and are delighted that the Wigan and Bolton Health Authority has now agreed to do this.

"The bed will open as soon as we can recruit the staff. However, although this will certainly help, there may still be times when it is so busy that we have no alternative but to transfer patients.

"Trust Chief Executive John Brunt is to press the case for further investment in intensive care throughout the whole of the Greater Manchester area."

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