HEALTH bosses have still not decided whether there should be four or five ‘super hospitals’ as part of a massive reorganisation of the NHS in Greater Manchester.

Su Long, chief officer at the Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group, told members of the health and wellbeing board a decision on whether the Royal Bolton is named a specialist hospital won’t be made until June.

Bolton NHS Foundation Trust is in the running to be made a ‘super hospital’ alongside Manchester Royal Infirmary, Salford Royal and the Royal Oldham Hospital, which have already been selected.

The Royal Bolton, Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in Wigan, Wythenshawe Hospital and Stepping Hill in Stockport are all vying for specialist status, rather than a general hospital.

But Ms Long said more work needs to be done before the Healthier Together bosses decide whether four or five sites would be better.

She told the board, who met at Bolton Town Hall: “We are looking for consensus from providers to make decisions quickly to get the changes to happen.

“We are trying to change services to save lives and prevent deaths, so the key thing will be to implement quickly — but if there isn’t consensus then all sorts of procurement processes might need to start, which will take longer.”

Under the shake-up, ‘super hospitals’ will be tasked with doing the most complex operations, meaning specialist doctors are concentrated within different departments.

Where possible, health bosses say they want the nearest specialist hospital for any Greater Manchester to be within one hour and 15 minutes on public transport.

By ambulance, a general hospital must be within 20 minutes by ambulance and for a specialist hospital within 45 minutes.

If the Royal Bolton Hospital is named as a general hospital it will still keep its accident and emergency, health bosses have insisted.