A 74-YEAR-OLD pensioner was kept waiting more than 13 hours on a trolley after collapsing with an irregular heartbeat and taken into the Royal Bolton Hospital.

The pensioner, who stresses that she has nothing but praise for the nurses and doctors in the casualty unit, said that she was kept waiting in "unsatisfactory" conditions.

The pensioner told the BEN: "I collapsed at a meeting with an irregular heartbeat. I was admitted at 10pm and lay on a trolley in the department for 13 hours.

"I told the doctors that I thought it was very unsatisfactory, but I said that I wouldn't write to the Bolton Evening News about it.

"But the doctor turned round and said to me -- I wish that you would!"