WATCHDOGS praised Blackburn Royal Infirmary's casualty department when they swooped on the hospital for a spot check.

The Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley Community Health Council found that most patients were treated within an hour of arriving at the accident and emergency department on Monday afternoon.

But inspectors admitted that it was a particularly quiet day as there were just 14 patients waiting for treatment.

The inspection, which comes after horror stories from across the country of long waits on hospital trolleys, was part of nationwide survey by the Association of Community Health Councils to identify trouble spots.

Altogether 160 community health councils in England, Wales and Scotland took part in the survey, which took place at 4.30pm on Monday at a selection of hospitals.

Nigel Robinson, chief officer of the community health council, said: "The majority of patients were dealt with within the hour.

"One patient did have to wait for more than four hours, but that was because she was undergoing considerable investigations to prevent her from having to be admitted to hospital.

"Where people did have to wait for treatment it is because they were waiting for x-rays or for doctors to come from other parts of the hospital.

"Some people were waiting on trolleys, but again they had been taken to accident and emergency and needed doctors from other parts of the hospital.

"On the whole we were very pleased with the staff in the department.

"This was just a snap-shot of the situation at the hospital and it was a quiet day, but we didn't find any major issues."

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