IT has been a long road to recovery for the troubled Royal Bolton Hospital.

Bolton NHS Foundation Trust’s problems began when it was revealed the hospital was failing to meet its 18 week time targets for treatment between 2011 and 2012, and had failed to hit four hour A&E waiting targets over six months.

In April 2012 senior bosses at the Royal Bolton Hospital were told the board would face monthly reviews by government watchdog Monitor, which demanded more robust action to ensure services are run more effectively and waiting times are met.

The trust was told it was in significant breach of its foundation trust authorisation because of how it was being governed, failure to meet key waiting time targets and the level of superbug infections.

And in August of the same year, an investigation was launched after it emerged £3.8 million was unaccounted for in the hospital finances, attributed to mismanagement of the books.

By April 2013 hospital chiefs were expecting a £1.9 million surplus — but instead found a £1.9 million deficit, and were told they had to save more than £50 million over the next three years resulting in the loss of 200 jobs.

Monitor released a damning report of the hospital finances, placing them under red risk, and also took the unusual step of intervening in the running of the hospital.

The then chairman of Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, Cllr Cliff Morris, stepped down and David Wakefield was appointed by Monitor in his place.

In September the director of finance Gary Raphael resigned, before a meeting in October revealed the Royal Bolton Hospital was almost £8 million in the red, having received a cash handout of £8.3 million to last until the end of December.

More problems came in February 2013, when an independent watchdog launched an investigation into death rates at the trust.

The acting chief executive Dr Jackie Bene stepped aside following the discovery that an unusually high number of patients had been recorded as having had septicaemia in a year.

The hospital marked 800 cases of septicaemia between March 2011 and April 2012, when a similar sized trust would expect to have just 200.

But in May a final report cleared Dr Bene and the hospital of any wrongdoing, and found while Bolton’s coding system did not meet health information expert Dr Foster’s criteria, there was no issue with patient care.

The fortunes of the beleaguered trust began to turn around in April 2013, when the A&E department beat national targets on waiting times after a range of improvements, including a new £1.5 million 14-bed ward.

More medical staff were put on at the weekend, and a nurse-led team in A&E was utilised to see and treat minor injuries and illnesses.

The number of clostridium difficile infections continued to fall, and a host of new faces were recruited to improve the management of the Trust.

Despite the positive news, the troubles of the trust are not yet over.

In a bid to save £800,000 a year, a ward of 28 beds was closed in May, and management have been tasked with cutting £70 million over the next five years — meaning more difficult decisions are on the horizon.