HEALTH bosses are concerned that Bolton patients have to travel too far for their care.

Residents have been "grudgingly" accepting appointments at health centres based away from their homes, NHS Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has reported.

Most people in the town live a maximum distance of two-and-a-half miles from a local health centre, which provides a number of services including appointments with a district nurse, but some people may have had to travel up to eight miles to be treated.

Bolton CCG is investigating the claims after hearing from a patient who had 11 appointments with district nurses at the Horwich Clinic to have her bandages changed, despite living on "the other side of Bolton".

At the CCG board meeting on Friday, Dr Barry Silvert said it was difficult to identify the reasons for patients choosing to travel to a treatment room which was not based near their homes.

However, the limited availability of appointments during weekends or busy hours was identified as a possible cause.

Dr Silvert said: "We currently have 11 treatment centres with the majority of Bolton population living 2.4 miles from the treatment centre, which is no great distance to travel. There doesn't seem to be any issue during the week.

"At the weekends there are some problems.

"There are actually four treatment centres open, Pikes Lane serving the south, Horwich in the west, Waters Meeting in the north, and Breightmet in the east."

Centres provide a variety of treatments and specialist clinics, including physiotherapy, baby clinic, smoking cessation and children's services.

The majority of centres are home to district nurses 24 hours a day, including all the centres open at the weekend.

While three of the centres are based no more than three miles apart, the Horwich Clinic is located outside of the town centre and more than eight miles away from Breightmet Health Centre.

An analysis of two centres – Horwich in Jones Street and Waters Meeting in Astley Bridge – found that there was evidence of people visiting for treatment who live outside of its locality.

While only six per cent travelled to Horwich from other Bolton postcodes, more than 37 per cent were travelling to Waters Meeting from outside of the area, mainly from Farnworth and Great Lever postcodes.

Concerns were raised that patients may be opting to make unnecessary journeys in order to be seen quicker.

CCG chief officer Su Long said health bosses needed a better understanding of the options available to patients when they are offered appointments at the centres.

She said: "We have not seen any analysis of what people want and what they get.

"If you get an appointment for two days time and not necessarily offered the nearest treatment centre, you may grudgingly accept to go further, but how many people are willing to because it's useful to visit that centre and not one closer to home?

"We can all imagine that, if it's an urgent need, those people offered a different centre have no choice."

Dr Stephen Liversedge added: "As a GP I can tell you that that grudging acceptance is prevalent."