A&E feels the heat

NHS Oldham Locality Board
ACCIDENT and emergency services at the Royal Oldham Hospital are under pressure from an influx of patients forced to travel after the closure of Rochdale Infirmary’s service.

Health bosses are urging people with less-serious conditions who could get the care they need from a pharmacist or the walk-in-centre, to take that option instead.

The accident and emergency service is already struggling to meet some of its targets.

A maximum four-hour wait from arrival to departure should be experienced by 95 per cent of patients, but the hospital failed because it took another 55 minutes for patients admitted to get a bed.

Latest figures, for July, show a target for 95 per cent of patients to get an initial assessment within 15 minutes was narrowly missed by two minutes — but was an improvement on the 28-minute wait in April.