any available space. they ve made it off the corridor. some are waiting to be assessed. most are waiting for a bed. sometimes, we can have trolleys in all the spaces. so we have had trolleys all around, all around the assessment areas. here, there s never a quiet moment, with so many patients to care for. a&e is full because bolton, like other hospitals we ve been into, says beds are hard to find. here, 100 patients are fit to leave but can t, because of community care issues. the government s recently given £200 million for extra social care beds in england. how much will it help here? it may be a little bit too late to deal with the current pressures we re facing. but money is always welcome. that s your zimmer frame. royal bolton is doing all it can to prepare patients for leaving the hospital. oh, you re doing marvellous.
we saw how soon after they arrive, staff begin the rehab process. perfect. but flu is adding to the pressure. diane was so poorly, her husband took her to see a gp, who told him to get her to hospital fast rather than waiting for an ambulance. he were holding me up. i couldn t walk straight. and the gp saw me and she got the. typed the note out and sent me straight to a&e. so, so i d say that gp saved my life. staff say flu and covid pressures mean it s harder than during the worst of the pandemic. the staff is exhausted. it feels as difficult as it was during covid. but in fact, slightly more difficult because during covid, a lot of services, we stopped, but now we are keeping on all elective services, plus we are managing the pressures at the front end. the hospital s pointing as many patients as possible who are less seriously ill to other areas of care, but the corridor still looks like this. despite everything,
good evening. ambulance response times in england and waits in accident and emergency departments have reached the highest levels on record. the latest figures have exposed the alarming state of emergency care in the national health service. for some emergencies, including suspected strokes and heart attacks, the average wait was over 90 minutes. the target is 18 minutes. more than a third of patients waited more than four hours to be assessed after arriving at the a&e department and last month over 5a,000 patients waited over 12 and last month over 511,000 patients waited over 12 hours in emergency departments waiting for a hospital bed and that s the highest ever number. the new figures were published the day after the latest strike action by ambulance workers. our health editor hugh pym reports now from the royal bolton hospital is what patients and staff are going
through. we are at ten on the corridor. we ve no capacity. we re going to come out and assess them in the ambulance so it ll be one nurse coming out to each patient. sue has worked here in a&e for over 30 years. the last six, 12 months, have been more challenging than i ve ever known in the time i ve worked here. the department was built to treat 21 patients. right now, there are 60 waiting. we re running two and three times above our capacity continually, and often more than that. is it sometimes so busy that you can t prevent delays for the ambulance crews? yes, it is, yes. and then that s when we have the big delays and the backlogs and when we get to that point, we re very often having to go out to the ambulances to see and assess them. we can t even get them in. and how much has that happened in the last few weeks? it s happened quite a lot, quite a lot, yes. away from the noise of a&e is intensive care the sickest patients.
ttatherin atmosphere? well, they have been gathering here atmosphere? well, they have been gathering here - atmosphere? well, they have been gathering here - i atmosphere? well, they have been gathering here - i will atmosphere? well, they have been gathering here - i will introduce i gathering here i will introduce you to those who are on the picket line, but1000 members of you to those who are on the picket line, but 1000 members of unison have taken, are taking strike action today, orare have taken, are taking strike action today, or are expected to. gmb also on strike. let s go straight to some of those on the picket line. can i ask you, you are a paramedic, i understand this is your ambulance, why are you on strike? just understand this is your ambulance, why are you on strike? why are you on strike? just a teneral why are you on strike? just a general decline why are you on strike? just a general decline of why are you on strike? just a general decline of the - why