I CAN provide the answer to Mike Straw's puzzlement (July 20) about the new portable mini accident and emergency unit at the Royal Bolton Hospital.

This is just another way which the Primary Care Trust and no doubt other trusts have found to avoid the problems caused by Government targets.

Patients treated in the unit will not form part of the targets, so the hospital will then have a better chance of meeting their A&E target.

There is no mention of where the extra staff and resources are coming from, so unless there is additional government funding the Primary Care Trust must be using existing staff and funds which will inevitably have an adverse affect on patient care in the community.

The sole purpose of this exercise is to satisfy the government, who will then turn round at the end of their term of office and try to convince us that their policies have improved the NHS.

What a sad state of affairs when health bodies are forced to use such devious means to prop up the government's failed NHS policy.

R Swindells Bolton