CAMPAIGNERS believe inadequate funding for the NHS will lead to deaths in Bolton.

The group fighting to prevent cuts to local health services has criticised the £2.8bn allocated to the NHS in the latest Chancellor’s budget as failing to meet the needs of the workforce and patients alike.

After a recent study published in the BMJ Open, Save Bolton NHS group secretary Karen Reissmann believes there are more troubles ahead.

She said: “The initial reaction is, unlike areas like social care and education, we’re glad there is some recognition of the crisis we are in.

“However it’s not enough for the scale of the crisis which is coming as soon as the cold weather arrives.

“The Government knowns it needs to do something but what it is doing is very little.

“The study believed 120,000 people have died in the country as a result of austerity in the health service and lack of funding for beds and nurses.

“Nurses vacancies seen month after month in Bolton are a result of these government policies.

“More people will die if people can’t get a hospital bed, operations are delayed and ambulances are left queuing outside hospitals.”

Mrs Reissmann believes that the crisis is worsening at Royal Bolton Hospital as it already is reaching its limit.

She added: “Already in Bolton we are aware of the hospital being on black alert and this is before Christmas.

“We don’t think it’s the fault of the trust or the Clinical Commissioning Group, they have no money because the government has not given people enough money for our health and social care services.”

Chancellor Philip Hammond announced a one-off emergency cash injection of £2.8bn for the NHS in Wednesday’s budget.

This includes an immediate £350m to help hospitals over winter, then £1.6bn for 2018 to 2019 and the remainder for 2019 to 2020.

Health bosses in Bolton welcomed the funding but remain uncertain on how the extra funding will be allocated locally.

Bolton NHS Foundation Trust chief officer Jackie Bene said: “Additional funding is always welcome, but we don’t know the detail as yet as to what this will mean for this trust.”

Bolton NHS Clinical commissioning Group chief officer Su Long added: “We do not yet know how this extra funding will be allocated locally, so cannot comment further at this time.”