Royal Bolton Hospital Accident and Emergency warns patients will wait '40+ hours' for bed

Patients have been warned they could face more than a 40 hour wait for a bed if they attend an A&E in Greater Manchester.

A sign claiming there were "no beds/cubicles in A&E due to no movement" appeared outside the department of the Royal Bolton Hospital.

The long message was written on a whiteboard on Friday, July 22, at around 1am, giving an update on the status of the hospital's emergency department.

It read: "There is currently a 40+ hour [wait] for a medical bed. There are six beds only left throughout the entire hospital."We have no beds/cubicles in A&E due to no movement. If you are waiting for a ward, you will be in our waiting room for numerous hours.

"If you require food, drink, medication or wish to leave, please go through to speak to medical staff."On waiting times to see a medic, the sign added: "Doctors 4-5 hours, minors 2-3 hours."

Hamna Qureshi, 32, was among the patients in Bolton's A&E on the night that sign was put up.

He said: "I was seen after two hours, then more tests, and sat for 16 hours in A&E.

"No beds, no easy chairs, nothing at all, people were so ill that they couldn't sit so they slept on the floor."One person sitting next to us came from Leigh and was told he was going to be admitted and needed to wait in A&E 40+ hours, as per the sign, before he could get a bed.

"He asked if he could go home and come back the next morning and was told 'it could be fatal to go home' but no beds available."The long waiting times in Bolton come as hospitals across the nation are being crippled in the same way.

A&Es in Greater Manchester have also seen ambulances queueing outside, lack of beds and huge waits in emergency departments.

There are currently high numbers of patients in hospital beds who are medically fit to go home, yet cannot be discharged due to chronic staffing and funding shortages in social care.

This includes patients waiting for spaces in care homes, but also people who may need visits from a carer in their own homes.

It is also thought around 1,000 of Greater Manchester's hospital beds are being occupied by people with Covid-19.

Not all of these people were admitted because of Covid-19, but their infectious status makes discharging them more challenging.

Bosses at the Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the Royal Bolton Hospital, have admitting the long wait times are unacceptable.Rae Wheatcroft, Chief Operating Officer of the trust, said staff are working "extremely hard".He said: "However it is clear that the amount of time some people have to wait for care is not acceptable, so we continue to do everything we can to get people home safely, get people who need care into a suitable bed as soon as possible, and minimise the time for those waiting for minor treatment.“We are still here and available for those who need us and encourage those who require urgent medical help to continue to come forward.

"Please use NHS 111 online before accessing NHS services to find the most appropriate place for your needs.”

The North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) also says it is under pressure - with a 21% rise in serious injuries and illnesses being reported in comparison to the same period of June.

This has caused handovers - where patients are transferred from ambulances and the care of paramedics over to hospital beds and doctors - to take hours and leave ambulances stuck waiting outside A&E while urgent 999 calls continue to flood in.

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