A DAMNING report highlighting Britain's over-crowded A&E units was revealed today -- coming just weeks after the BEN uncovered the crisis at the Royal Bolton Hospital.

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The Audit Commission has warned that waiting times in accident and emergency are growing and set to get worse.

There were wide variations in waiting times in A&E departments across England and Wales, both to see a doctor and to be admitted.

The Commission's controller Sir Andrew Foster, said it was "troubling" that the majority of departments are seeing fewer patients within one hour than in 1998.

And while some departments are admitting patients faster, most are taking longer.

The report coincides with a £100 million Government cash unleashed today which is intended to end the NHS misery.

Just weeks after the BEN revealed the depth of the crisis at the Royal Bolton Hospital, health minister Alan Milburn has vowed to end long trolley waits in A&E over the next three years.

The Government are to buy 25,000 extra operations in the private sector in a bid to reduce the numbers of planned operations by 75 per cent -- at a cost of £40 million nationwide.

A further £40 million has been released to fund 600 A&E nursing posts across the country and £10 million for local care leaders to co-ordinate emergency care.

As from next spring, all patients with minor injuries in A&E will be separated from seriously ill patients in two different streams.

They predict this will reduce waiting by more than an hour.

As reported in the BEN, the Royal Bolton Hospital gained only a one-star in the Government rating system because of the high number of its cancelled operations.

The Government plan to tackle this by separating emergency work from routine surgery to make sure unplanned emergencies do not have a knock on effect on operations.

Mr Milburn said: "Waiting is the public's number one concern about the NHS. We are determined to tackle waiting in A&E, whether its waiting to be seen by a doctor or waiting to be admitted on a trolley.

"Investment on its own is not enough. We are already taking action to tackle bed-blocking, train and recruit more staff, use spare capacity in private hospitals and increase the number of available beds in NHS hospitals."

Mr Milburn predicted a complete overhaul of A&E departments and said that the NHS will make real strides over the next few years.

Bolton South East MP Brian Iddon said the £100 million Government cash pledge was good news.

He said: "Obviously on top of all the other money put into the NHS this is welcome news. I am just about to write to Alan Millburn telling him what difficulties we have with capacity at the Royal Bolton Hospital. This money will help particularly with the Accident and Emergency."

But he added he did not know how much of the money will be allocated to the Royal Bolton Hospital yet.

Chief Executive John Brunt of the Royal Bolton Hospital said: "I think the Audit Report recognises this is one of the busiest accident and emergency departments in the country but we are still able to give good quality clinical care. That is a credit to the staff."

A hospital spokesperson said they welcomed any additional funds but they have not been told how much their cut of the £100 million will be.

She added the hospital's accident and emergency department has about 80,000 patients a year, 90 per cent of whom are admitted within four hours which she says compare well with other hospitals. Ninety per cent of patients who need clot busters (drugs given to people who have suffered heart attacks) receive them within 30 minutes -- a figure she also says compares well with other hospitals.

She said the hospital did have problems with emergency care and they had more people than they can cope with.

She added: "Our main problem is not in terms of surgery but in terms of emergency care.

"We need a bigger medical admittance unit and more beds in order to care for people within the hospital."