SICK patients are being left waiting longer to be seen and treated at the Royal Bolton A&E following a spike in admissions.

Bosses at the hospital have now admitted they expect to fail the three-month waiting time targets set by the government which say 95 per cent of patients should be seen within four hours.

They have now drawn up an extensive action plan to tackle the problem which includes speeding up processing prescriptions, employing more staff and improving ‘patient flow’ by making sure patients are moved to wards or discharged as quickly as possible.

They will also consider whether to pit doctors against each other by recording how quickly they see, treat and discharge patients as well as how many are later re-admitted.

At a meeting of board members at the Royal Bolton Hospital, chief operating officer Andy Ennis described the situation in November as “pretty appalling”.

The Trust recorded a six per cent rise in non-elective admissions, and has recruited 100 more nurses – but training and embedding these staff is taking time, he added.

“When A&E goes bad it goes like children’s football – everyone just starts following things around”, Mr Ennis told the committee.

“We are trying to do a whole range of things and I think at times our managers are struggling to do all those things well.

“The reality is that there is not one single thing, there is a large number of small things that have changed. The things listed are about how we change substantially and going forward.

“Staffing is undoubtedly an issue. The skills mix on the wards is at times not adequate.”

On Friday night 68 people were left waiting longer than four hours to be seen, with 71 patients admitted overnight.

A report said the hospital expects to fail its Quarter 3 target, covering the months of September to December, with a rate of 92 per cent.

Significantly, it moves the overall year performance to an overall fail of 94.5 per cent at the end of the month.

Chairman of the board, David Wakefield, stressed Trusts across the country were struggling to meet their A&E targets due to increased demand.

He said: “It is a real disappointment for everyone.

“I am delighted that performance over the past four to five nights, things have improved and let’s hope that continues.”