A LEADING doctor in Bolton has cautioned against damaging the reputation of the NHS saying it could create further problems down the line.

Wirin Bhatiani, chairman of Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said the biggest challenges facing the NHS are around finances and workforce.

He warned that the national attention on the NHS could do harm by focussing on the service's flaw and discourage people from working in it.

Dr Bhatiani said: "We need consultants, nurses, support staff, practice nurses and GPs.

"By being negative a lot of young people will not want to come and can be discouraged.

"We must be very careful we show the benefits.

"The challenge is a real one and parts are struggling because of a lack of staff."

When asked about the benefits of working in the NHS Dr Bhatiani, said: "Why do people come to work for us?

"They have this inclination to want to help and care for people, that's a basic thing that attracted me to the NHS. I wanted to engage and improve the quality of our experience of health care."

He added: "We are struggling with resources and workforce but despite that the staff in hospital, in the community and in practices are working amazingly hard to maintain the service and in many places improve it.

"I have to thank everybody who is pulling together to keep our NHS going."

The National Health Service continues to provide health care free at the point of delivery in increasingly challenging times.

In Bolton the CCG is working on a number of programmes to balance its budgets.

These include the Locality Plan which aims to deliver more care in the community and prevent people from going to hospital unnecessarily.

Other programmes aimed at providing an efficient service within a constrained budget include the Healthier Together programme which is in the process of being rolled out.

For Bolton, Healthier Together means high risk surgeries, which are surgeries where the chance of death is much higher, will be carried out at Salford Royal Hospital to improve patient's chances.

In the next 12 months a £48 million major trauma unit will be built at Salford Royal which will take in high risk patients from Bolton and the rest of the North West Sector Partnership, which also includes Wigan.