A hospital in Greater Manchester has issued advice to patients amid 'extremely busy' scenes in A&E.
The emergency department at the Royal Bolton Hospital is currently 'experiencing extremely high levels of activity'. Wait times in A&E for patients today are more than four hours, according to a post on the Bolton NHS Foundation Trust Facebook page.
Health bosses urged people to call 111 for advice before attending hospital. They said the most seriously injured or ill people will 'always been seen immediately'.
READ MORE: Patients face new backlog after IT and phone system crash resolved
In full, the Facebook post said: "Our Emergency Department is currently experiencing extremely high levels of activity. No matter how busy our Emergency Department is, the most seriously ill and injured patients will always be seen immediately.
"Choosing the most appropriate place for care allows our ambulance and emergency department staff to concentrate on people whose lives are at risk, and can potentially save you a long wait. If your GP is closed you can go to 111.nhs.uk or call 111, which will direct you to the best local service."
This comes after NHS facilities across Greater Manchester were brought to a standstill for hours yesterday (March 29) as a technical fault has caused IT systems to crash and phone lines to go down. Many of the approximate 600 GP practices across the region were understood to be affected, along with multiple walk-in centres and overarching services run by the region's NHS - all of which run on the same system.
Patients had appointments cancelled and postponed, while staff attempted to keep urgent appointments by working on their personal devices. The issue was resolved yesterday afternoon.
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