BOLTON Hospital's Accident and Emergency department is at breaking point, it has been revealed.

Health chiefs are now urging residents to stay away from the unit unless it is absolutely necessary for them to be there.

Staff at the hospital said the casualty department has been “almost overwhelmed” and that many of those attending do not need to go to hospital for treatment.

Figures released by the Bolton NHS Foundation show that 8,752 people went to casualty in February — a rise of 620 or 7 per cent on the same month last year.

Of these extra patients, the Trust said a quarter had only minor injuries or ailments that could have been treated elsewhere.

Data also shows that from March 1 to 7, 2674 people went to A & E — an increase of 124 or six per cent on the same period in 2015 — with 78 of the additional 124 not requiring hospital treatment.

The figures have been released just over a year after the hospital declared a major incident as staff struggled to cope with patient numbers.

Andy Ennis, chief operating officer at the Royal Bolton Hospital, said: “We fully understand that people become anxious when they or a member of the family is ill or injured, but many patients do not need hospital treatment.

“These large increases in numbers mean that at times the department is almost overwhelmed. It results in long waits for patients and great pressure on staff.”

Mr Ennis said that the pattern appears to have been affecting hospitals across the region.

At the Royal Bolton Hospital patients who arrive at the emergency department but do not need care from A & E are advised of alternatives and appointments may be made for them to see a GP instead.

He added: “There seem to be many reasons why attendances have shot up, for instance people have been suffering respiratory illnesses following recent cold snaps. However it is abundantly clear that many people are coming to A & E when quite simply they don’t need to.”

The rising figures come after the Trust launched a campaign to persuade patients heading to casualty to think if their ailment could be treated elsewhere.

But Jack Firth, of Bolton Healthwatch, said it looks like the campaign is failing to yield results.

He said: “We are very aware of the situation at the Royal Bolton and it should be pointed out that the recent junior doctors strikes may have had an effect on those figures.

“But more generally it seems like the Trust and the Clinical Commissioning Group are going to have to do something different because the campaign is clearly not working and people are still turning up to A & E in their droves.

He added: “People should not go to casualty if they don’t need to — they should go and see their GP and if they can’t get an appointment then they can come and talk to us at Healthwatch.”

Farnworth resident Martin Howarth is a nurse at the Royal Bolton — and he blames the NHS’s “senseless and totally resource wasting” 111 service for adding to the A & E pressures.

Patients are advised to call the service for assessment of any ailments and then possibly be directed to either A & E or to an NHS walk-in centre.

Mr Howarth — who has worked at the hospital for 22 years — said he was left very frustrated by the service as he recently tried to help a neighbour receive treatment.

He said: “My neighbour had a chest infection which she had seen her GP about and they had prescribed antibiotics to treat, the proviso was that if her breathing deteriorated she got back in touch with her GP.”

After contacting a late night pharmacist, Mr Howarth was directed to take his neighbour to an NHS walk-in centre where he was told she could not be seen until she had contacted the 111 service,

He said: “My neighbour was on the telephone for a least 20 minutes waiting to be assessed.

“We left in sheer frustration due to the wait and the absolute ludicrous situation she found herself in — she said she would wait there until the morning and then contact her GP.”

He added: “We keep hearing that patients go to A & E inappropriately but after this experience

I can now understand why they resort to going there.”

Bolton South East MP Yasmin Qureshi said: “What we really need to do is abandon this 111 nonsense — we need a system where GPs perhaps pool their resources and provide and out-of-hours service because that would immediately have an effect on the strain on A and E.”