BOLTON could pay out more than £1 million extra on mental health after 'unprecedented demand' sees patients sent as far away as Brighton for care.

Health bosses have forecast an overspend of £1,094,000 on the services by the end of the financial year.

It has been blamed on 'additional placements and delayed discharges' and comes as demand increases on the service and patients from Bolton struggle to find beds at inpatient mental health facilities.

As a result, people have found themselves on the road to Brighton, Darlington and Nottingham.

NHS Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) foots the bill for care elsewhere in the country, including patient transport costs.

Dr Barry Silvert, clinical director for integrated commissioning at Bolton CCG, said they have been working closely with the Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust (GMMH) to ensure people could access services closer to home.

He added: "There has been an unprecedented demand for acute psychiatric in-patient beds which has resulted in additional pressures on local services.

"Significant work continues to address this issue, however we are aware demand has increased nationally and the North West picture reflects this."

By October, £21,449,000 of Bolton's £35,574,000 budget had been spent — £793,000 more than expect.

GMMH has been attempting to pinpoint the most pressurised areas in the service run across Bolton, Salford, Trafford and Manchester.

Members reported an increase in demand and a 'significant increase' in patients staying longer than 50 days, at the recent CCG board meeting.

Director of operations Deborah Partington said: "This is a hugely significant area for us.

"Almost 50 per cent of beds are filled with people staying over 50 days, that's a huge amount of room taken up. A lot of them are clinically appropriate but there is a significant number awaiting care packages."

In November, there were 18 patients in Bolton on stays of between 50 and 100 days and 14 of them had no clinical need to be there.

However it still falls lower than the national average of 28 to 30 patients.

A knock-on effect has meant fewer beds for new patients, with Dr Silvert reporting how 12 people were sent out of the area in September to places including Surrey and Sussex — resulting in 'significant costs' to bring them home.

Ms Partington added: "They are a significant issue.

"It is happening all over the place, there's no rhyme or reason to it — it's just down to where beds are available.

"We had a situation last year where there were no beds available across the country."

Health bosses agreed a long-term solution had to be found but in the meantime more beds were needed.

In 2014 and 2015, Greater Manchester reduced inpatient beds in line with developments in the rest of the country and enhanced and invested in community crisis services to prevent people having to go into hospital.

In the past 12 months, the region has seen a rise in demand for adult inpatient beds — including a 15.8 per cent increase in Bolton, Trafford and Salford.

Between April and October, there were 8,714 beds occupied in Bolton, with 583 patient from outside the borough and 341 Bolton people using beds in other areas.