NHS staff will stage protests tomorrow outside the Royal Bolton Hospital and Lever Chambers Centre for Health in the town centre against Government cuts.

Nurses, midwives, porters and administration staff will be among those holding the demonstrations, which are a local follow-up to the huge national march in London.

Health staff were among more than 400 people from Bolton who joined an estimated 400,000 protesters fighting government cuts in the capital on Saturday.

Unions representing staff at the Royal Bolton Hospital and NHS Bolton, the primary care trust (PCT) which oversees local health services, are preparing to demonstrate for a second time, in Bolton.

The message, on April Fool’s Day, is “Don’t fool about with our NHS”, with a call for the public to get involved.

It is part a national campaign by NHS unions against massive reforms to the health service and the slashing of budgets.

At the Royal Bolton Hospital there will be a demonstration outside the main entrance between noon and 2pm.

Harry Hanley, of Staffside, a collaboration of the unions representing hospital workers, said: “My advice to the Government and NHS is step back and start thinking.

Don’t fool with our NHS.

Staff want to take action, things are getting serious and the public also need to realise what is going on and get involved.

“We want everyone to come along and support us.”

The PCT’s Staffside group will be outside Lever Chambers Centre for Health, in Ashburner Street, in the town centre, between noon and 1.30pm.

Spokesman Jane Leicester said: “People need to be informed. For example the Government says frontline staff are not being cut but they are not being replaced, which is the same thing.

“If you are concerned about changes in the NHS, come along and support us.

We need the public to back us.”

National campaign group 38 Degrees has a petition, Save our NHS, which will be available to sign at both sites.