Inconsiderate drivers told not to park in ambulance bays at A&E

Friday, 4 April 2025 16:45

By Chris Gee, Local Democracy Reporter

A plea has been issued to drivers not to park in ambulance bays outside a hospital’s emergency department. Work will start later this month to transform the department at Royal Bolton Hospital.

The project means the reception area will be temporarily moved outside to a modular building where currently some patient drop-off spaces are. A spokesman for Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Please do not park in ambulance bays when dropping off relatives or friends at our emergency department.

“The nearest area for drop-off is outside the main entrance, or in Chadwick car park. “We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.”
From Monday, April 14 the trust will be starting a multi-million pound project to modernise their urgent care services.

They said the work will ‘improve patient experience and is designed to keep patients moving through the emergency department’. Royal Bolton Hospital is set to spend £1.74m on the improvements.

They said it would help meet national targets on the four-hour quality standard for seeing patients and ambulance hand overs. The trust, added: “While works are under-way a new temporary reception will be set up in a modular building outside the pedestrian entrance to the emergency department.

“We’re asking people to only attend with a maximum of one visitor to help us manage reduced capacity in the waiting room during construction. “As with any major work, we anticipate there will be noise disruption as we work to improve our buildings and we apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

“Signs and digital screens are in place to help direct you to where you need to be.

“The temporary reception will be situated directly outside the pedestrian entrance, limiting the number of spaces available to drop-off patients.”
The trust said they expect the transformation work to take 27 weeks to complete.
Throughout this time, patients will still be able to access all emergency care services as usual, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

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