Healthcare: Bolton

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Wednesday 15th October 2025 Westminster Hall

[Kirith Entwistle (Bolton North East) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered healthcare in Bolton.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Lewell. I declare an interest as a member of the Women and Equalities Committee. Improving the quality of healthcare is a cause close to my heart, and I am pleased to be joined by my fellow Boltonian, my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton South and Walkden (Yasmin Qureshi). I would also like to highlight the work of my friend and neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton West (Phil Brickell), who is unfortunately unable to join us today, but who I know has been strongly campaigning for a new neighbourhood health centre in Westhoughton, and I pay tribute to that work.

For too long, healthcare in Bolton has been treated as a technocratic policy area rather than a vital lifeline. My constituents are not concerned with acronyms or distant targets; they want answers to real, human questions: “Can I get a GP appointment when my child is ill?”, “Will my mum be seen in A&E within hours, not half a day?” and “Will my toothache be treated before it turns into an infection?” This is about fairness; it is about whether towns like mine get our fair share. My message is simple, and I will repeat it: Bolton must not be left behind—not in GP access, not in A&E rates and not in dentistry.

Everything I say today is drawn from the lived experiences of people in Bolton. Earlier this year, I held a local consultation on the NHS 10-year plan. The response was overwhelming. Boltonians care deeply about our NHS and, as a result, they brought ideas, energy and hope, as well as far too many stories of delays, confusion and dignity under pressure. I promised I would bring their voices here today and speak plainly about the state of healthcare in our town.

Let us be honest: by the time Labour came in last year, Bolton’s NHS was stretched to breaking point, with patients waiting, staff exhausted and services fraying. At Royal Bolton hospital, our A&E was among the worst performing in England-, at one point in the bottom 5%. Local residents were waiting 12 or 13 hours to be seen, with elderly patients on trolleys overnight and small children with high fevers stuck in crowded corridors. That was unbearable, and evidence of more than a decade of neglect. By the time of last year’s election, waiting lists were in crisis, with more than 600 people in Bolton waiting over 65 weeks for treatment—well over a year. Behind every wait was a life on pause: a knee that would not bend, a lump not yet diagnosed, a life put at risk.

That crisis did not happen overnight; it came from choices—14 years of underfunding, frozen capital budgets and ignored warnings about staff shortages. Public health budgets were cut by more than a quarter. That neglect hit towns like Bolton hardest, because when you start with older buildings, higher rates of illness and fewer GPs, cuts hit twice as hard.

Yet, despite it all, one constant kept us standing: our NHS staff. More than 6,000 people in and around Bolton hospital keep this town going. Nurses, doctors, porters, cleaners, therapists and paramedics turn up throughout winter crises and put up with buildings that are literally crumbling. I want to put on record my thanks to the many fantastic people I have met and particularly to Fiona Noden at Bolton hospital, Amy Rothwell at Bolton Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership, Leigh Vallance at Bolton Hospice, Carol Fielding and Steve Milward at Bolton Pulmonary Fibrosis Support Group and all the teams who care so deeply for their patients. They deserve more than our gratitude; they deserve a system that backs them.

Thankfully, because our staff and communities refused to give up, and because we now have a Labour Government repairing those years of neglect, there has been a real shift. Over the past year, Bolton hospital has become one of the most improved trusts in England for urgent care, the second most improved on the 12-hour A&E measure, and among the top 10 for the four-hour standard. Gone are the days of the regular 65-week waits. Cancer services are improving too. Bolton NHS foundation trust is leading the country on the 28-day diagnosis standard—a real credit to our cancer teams.

Of course, those gains were not luck; they came from investment, co-ordination and teamwork, and from Government backing alongside A&E staff, social care and our Greater Manchester partners. We have improved because we funded triage clinicians—expanding urgent care so that paramedics are not stuck in corridors—unblocked beds through better discharge planning and used modern data to keep patient flow moving. Improvements such as those show what happens when we have a Government who provide the support and resources we need. When Bolton is backed, Bolton delivers.

Of course, we cannot pretend that everything has been fixed within a year. Bolton hospital’s chief executive told me last week that winter illnesses have already begun, and my constituents are still living with the consequences of underinvestment. If we do not keep investing in beds, staff and modern systems, we will slide back. Even in recent weeks, I have heard from constituents about long waiting lists and poor communication. One constituent wrote to me after waiting nearly 10 months for an operation. Week after week brought new calls, promises and deferrals, with no clear explanation and no timeline held. Another constituent, who had received podiatry care for 20 years, found her care plan cancelled without notice after what was later described as “computer error”, leaving her housebound and in pain. That is not good enough. People deserve timely care and straight answers.

People also tell me about poor co-ordination across hospital, community and social care, delayed wheelchairs, patchy discharge planning and post-hospital support that does not arrive.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I commend the hon. Member for Bolton North East (Kirith Entwistle) for securing the debate. Whether it be Bolton or Ballywalter, healthcare problems are the same for every one of us. The result of these issues is a lack of confidence in the system, which is harmful in itself. If someone says there is no point phoning the GP, because they cannot get an appointment, they cannot get early detection and intervention, and they will lose out. Does the hon. Lady agree that accessibility is the key to confidence and that that is where we need to start?