Royal Bolton Hospital patients waited in corridors for 12 hours

Winter is typically the busiest period for hospitals to deal with, but this period, particulary December, proved to be more challenging due to the added pressure of Strep A, Covid, and a North West Ambulance critical incident and due to extra pressures caused by strikes elsewhere.

Chief Operating Officer Rae Wheatcroft said: “As you already know winter is always the most pressured time for us in urgent care, and this winter has been no different so far.

“On top of the normal winter pressures we’ve also had to contend with industrial action, increased flu, increased Covid, Step A, and an NWAS critical incident.”

• ALSO READ: 'Staff are exhausted': Pressures of Royal Bolton A&E and intensive care units on TV

Royal Bolton's A&E department has been busy again this week (Image: Bolton NHS Foundation Trust)

Following the reports of Strep A cases, the hospital say that this resulted in an increase of “worried” parents bringing their children to A&E, which put added pressure on the department, as well as primary care.

Due to the added pressures this meant that the hospital had to declare Operational Pressures Escalation Level four.

This then resulted in the hospital having only 15 minutes warning that patients would be dropped off and left in the emergency department -  even if they didn’t have the space to cope.

The dramatic shortage of beds was discussed at the Bolton NHS Foundation Trust Board meeting.

• ALSO READ: Bolton NHS trust declares 3 critical incidents since October

According to the hospital’s winter bed modelling, even with all the schemes in place and with a medium level of flu, it would still be 38 beds short.

Miss Wheatcroft said: “For some organisations, that resulted in patients having to be cared for outside of emergency departments within main hospital corridors.

“And as that precedence had already been set by others, we were challenged to do the same thing here in Bolton.

“And I have to say, I refused that for the people of Bolton.

“And so, we did have to use escalation areas and corridor space in our same day emergency care area.”

Accident and Emergency department at Royal Bolton (Image: BBC)

• ALSO READ: Royal Bolton Hospital: A&E demand 'over and above' normal

The hospital saw 8.8 per cent more attendances in their A&E department compared to December 2021, which is almost 1,000 more attendances.

Rae added: “It’s no wonder that at times our staff really felt overwhelmed.

“The increase in attendances certainly had an impact on our waiting times.

“In the emergency department patients waited for more than 12 hours.”

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