Campaigners have hit out at plans they say will significantly reduce the size of an already stretched Royal Bolton Hospital.
At a public meeting tonight organised by the Bolton Save Our NHS group, it was claimed that a five year plan developed to tackle a £83 million funding gap by 2020 was unworkable.
Campaigners argued that, instead of improving health in the community, the hospital could have 50 beds cut and patients forced to travel to Salford for emergency care.
They also claimed that the hospital was already under significant pressure, operating on ‘black’ and ‘red’ ‘status’ – where service delivery is below acceptable levels.
Dr Jackie Grunsell, a GP from Huddersfield, attended the meeting alongside Bolton Save Our NHS member Karen Reissmann .
She told the busy hall at the Friends’ Meeting House in Silverwell Street there was no evidence that the government’s sustainability and transformation plans (STPs) – which aim to show how services in each local region will evolve and become sustainable over the next five years – could work.
She cited a lack of proper funding, low workforce numbers and problems providing the right social care as an ongoing crisis for the NHS.
Full story in Lancashire Telegraph, 24 March 2017