DAVID Fillingham is a man on a mission. The 44-year-old father of two took over the reins at the Royal Bolton Hospital as its new chief executive two weeks ago.

The health boss now heads a workforce of up to 3,500 full-time and part-time staff.

He is aiming to reverse the fortunes of the hospital, but is well aware of the challenges ahead.

But he is undaunted. In fact, he is relishing the role declaring: "I'm loving it here already."

The ambitious new chief executive has risen through the ranks of the NHS over the last 10 years and moved to Bolton from a top Whitehall job. Top of his agenda is to put pride back into the hospital and it is his intention that the hospital will one day achieve a top three star rating - a feat which has so far eluded it.

In July, the hospital was downgraded from a two star to a one-star status. It failed on accident and emergency waiting times and, after an investigation by the Audit Commission, revealed that waiting lists for minor operations had been fiddled in an attempt to meet Government targets.

The new hospital boss admits there needs to be improvements.

But he says: "Star ratings are only important as indicators in delivering patient care. We have to aim for three stars, which would mean we hit the indicators, but we want to be the best in all those indicators.

"Every three-star organisation has services it needs to improve and zero and one star organisations don't mean bad hospitals.

"Star ratings are perfectly reasonable when it comes to how clean our environment is, reducing death rates and getting good-quality clinical outcomes.

"But, first of all, we have to make sure we hold on to the one star we have got. It would be wrong to place too much emphasis on star ratings, but the kind of things they are measuring are the right things to measure."

Although he is just two weeks into his new role, Mr Fillingham already feels at home.

"I'm loving it here already," he said. "People are very friendly and welcoming and I know there are lots of good people, good services and huge potential for developing this hospital in the future."

Some services he had already heard about in his Whitehall job: the eye unit, said to be the best in the country; the diabetes service, which has just been handed over to the Bolton Primary Care Trust; children's services; and the organ donor team.

"I've heard many good things about lots of staff in Bolton but there are things that need improving," he said.

"Waiting times are longer than I would want them to be and sometimes that comes down to a lack of capacity. Waiting times are still too long in orthopaedic services and general surgery.

"We need to develop all the imaging services, including X-ray and scanning, because delays there can hold up other areas."

Mr Fillingham said forging a close relationship with the town's MPs and local councillors was also on his agenda.

"I will be holding regular meetings to work with them in the near future," he said.