"As we head into a bank holiday weekend for the new year, our services are busy and colleagues are working very hard to try and reduce waiting times for the people who need our help. There are ways our patients, their families and the wider public can help.
"We are supporting patients to return home quickly to make beds available at Salford Royal, Royal Oldham, Fairfield General Hospital and Rochdale Infirmary. This means clinical colleagues may have conversations with patients and their families about safely getting them home or to an alternative care setting faster than usual. We thank our patients and their loved ones for working with us on this.
"To keep our Accident and Emergency (A&E) services available to those in greatest need, people should only call 999 or come to A&E in an emergency.
"Waiting times in our busy A&E services can be longer than we’d like for our patients. Therefore it’s really important that people understand how other services can help them, for example, NHS 111 (online and phone) and pharmacists. The support and understanding of our patients, service users and their families means a lot to our hard working staff – thank you."
Jude Adams, Chief Delivery Officer, Northern Care Alliance NHS FT