HEALTH watchdogs have demanded extra cash to help an over-stretched casualty unit to cope with an influx of patients from the Leigh and Salford areas.

Since the new hi-tech accident and emergency unit opened at the Royal Bolton Hospital, staff have struggled to cope with patients from outside the area turning up for treatment.

At a meeting of Bolton Hospitals Trust, Mr John Seddon, Chairman of the Community Health Council in Bolton, said: "The staff in this unit are under a great deal of pressure. Everyone knows that the number of patients needing treatment has risen dramatically yet there has been no money from the health authority to provided the extra cash the trust needs to employ more staff."

Mr John Brunt, Chief Executive of the Trust said: "We are getting frustrated that this wait is going on for so long.

"We are now starting to lose some of the benefits we acquired when we moved on to the Royal Bolton Hospital site.

"We are seeing an increasingly large number of patients from the Leigh and Atherton areas and have been aware of the situation for some time.

"We are now waiting for the allocation of cash from the health authority to be adjusted to take account of these changes. It's only when the allocations have been adjusted that we can recruit the additional staff we need.

"It's no longer just the pressure of the winter months which cause us problems. The increase in patients is marked and it's now quite obvious that we are having to deal with many extra patients from outside the borough.

"We have seen quite a marked decrease in the number of minor injuries coming into the department and are dealing with more emergency 999 patients which need more expensive forms of treatment and care," he added.

Mr Mike Ruane, Chief Executive of Wigan and Bolton Health Authority, said the hospital had already received an additional £90,000 to employ an extra three nurse practitioners and statistics showed there had been no massive increase in the number of patients being treated at the Bolton unit.

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