MORE people are visiting the hospital’s A&E department this month but attendance is still dramatically lower than normal due to the coronavirus crisis.

A total of 275 people attended A&E at Royal Bolton Hospital on May 11 – around 70 per cent of the usual attendance for a typical Monday.

But although A&E attendance is rising, health bosses are still anxious about people with heart disease symptoms and mini strokes not seeking help.

Bolton NHS clinical commissioning group (CCG) chair Su Long revealed the figures at a virtual board meeting held via video conference on Friday.

She said: “A really good indication is Mondays which are our busiest day at A&E. When we were at our last board meeting [April 17], we were worried about low attendance.

“At that time, we were getting approximately 180 people coming in on a Monday. That’s half of what we’d expect on a normal Monday.

“This Monday we saw 275 people. That’s around 70 per cent of the normal levels of attendance. That’s an indication that more people are seeking hep from A&E at the moment. But it doesn’t give us an indication of whether it’s serious incidents.”

Dr Stephen Liversedge, clinical director of primary care and health improvement, said there has been an overall fall in demand in primary care, which includes GPs, community pharmacy, dental and optometry services.

But he said that this has caused “increasing anxiety” across the NHS.

He said: “The second wave of problems relates to people not presenting with the non-coronavirus problems.

“I’m talking about people who have developed symptoms of heart disease and people who have presented with mini strokes.

“That’s a huge anxiety to us. By the time they eventually present we may have missed our opportunity to treat and prevent strokes and heart attacks.

“Patients are slightly reticent to come to surgeries. We have separate pathways for patients when they are suspected to have coronavirus.

“Most situations can be dealt with over the phone. That’s all well and good, but there’s some stuff that can’t be done over the phone and we have to start thinking of ways to address that.

“However much we have publicised to patients that we are open for business and they must contact us, we still require more work on communicating with patients so at the very least they talk to us about everything even if we don’t have to see them face to face.”

Anyone experiencing chest pain, stroke symptoms, heavy bleeding or a severe headache, or anyone with a child who is extremely unwell, should go to A&E.

Those with more minor conditions should seek treatment elsewhere such as calling GPs or NHS 111.