Pressures at the Royal Bolton Hospital revealed in BBC report

The hospital’s A&E and intensive care units made an appearance on BBC News, which investigated the pressures and demands nurses and healthcare workers face on a daily basis.

One of the main problems Royal Bolton is facing is finding space for patients to be cared for.

At the time of the filming, which on TV on Thursday night, there were 60 patients waiting for a department that was built to treat 21 patients.

Susan Beswick, senior sister in A&E, told BBC health editor Hugh Pym that the hospital is running two or three times above their capacity and often nurses have to go out to ambulances to assess patients.

Susan said: “The last six or 12 months have been more challenging than I have ever known, in the time I have worked here.

Susan Beswick, senior sister A&E, Royal Bolton Hospital (Image: BBC)

“We are running two or three times above our capacity, continually, and often more than that.

“We very often have to go out to the ambulances to see and assess them [patients], we can’t even get them in.

“The workload is tough- we’ve had to adapt and change our ways of working but we are A&E nurses, and we take what’s put in front of us and deal with it the best we can.”

Within the report, videos showed how full every area of the A&E department was with "patients tucked into any available space".

Dr Harni Bharaj, deputy medical director, said: “Sometimes you can have trolleys in all spaces, so we have had trolleys all around the assessment areas.”

The intensive care unit at the hospital is also almost at full capacity.

Sezan Quinn, physiotherapist, said: “We have got one empty bed at the minute, a lady has just gone down to the ward, so just one empty bed.

“It’s manic to be honest, obviously there is significant pressure on the NHS, but it’s felt busy and as much as it has been really difficult to try and get people home and discharged from the ward and discharged from here, it’s just felt blocked, everywhere, it has been really really difficult.”

Accident and Emergency Department (Image: BBC)

In the report, Pym states there are 100 patients who are fit to leave the hospital but can’t because of community care issues.

Staff say flu and Covid pressures also mean it’s harder than during the worst of the pandemic.

Dr Rizwan Ahmed said: “Staff are exhausted, it feels as difficult as it was during Covid but in fact, slightly more difficult because during Covid a lot of services we stopped but now we’re keeping on all the elective services plus we are managing the pressures at the front end.”

Pym said he noticed how tough the working environment was for staff.

He said: “I was very struck by the noise and the stress and the strain with staff working absolutely flat out to deal with this stream of patients in buildings really designed 10 years ago or more than that to cope with a far lower number of patients then and its similar for many other hospitals, these very cramped conditions.

“But at Bolton they are doing all they possibly can under the standard A&E playbook- you stream patients, you move the less seriously ill away from the front door, away from the main bit of A&E to a minor injuries’ unit or an urgent care centre with a GP.

“They feel they are doing all that but still they end up with the sort of scenes that you’ve seen there, and many many other hospitals are seeing something similar.”