Urgent and emergency care at the hospital was downgraded from good to requires improvement following a CQC inspection in May.

Gill Hodgson-Reilly, CQC deputy director for hospitals, secondary and specialist care in the North West, said: 'At Royal Albert Edward Infirmary, we found an emergency department under significant pressure, where people faced long waits for treatment in environments that weren't always appropriate for their needs.'

Inspectors found excessively long waits for specialty beds were causing delays throughout the emergency department.

The CQC said Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was among the worst performing in England for emergency department 12 hour waits.

Over 900 people waited over 12 hours in the emergency department in the month prior to the inspection.

Mary Fleming, chief executive of Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: ‘Since the inspection, we have accelerated improvement work through our Emergency Department Transformation Programme, our trust-wide Fundamentals of Care Programme and our established system-wide Better Lives Programme. This includes improving sepsis recognition and treatment, strengthening patient flow and the care environment, and working closely with mental health partners.

‘Alongside this, our Better Lives Programme continues to bring partners together across Wigan Borough to address wider health and care system pressures and help people receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time.

‘We are already seeing improvements, but we know there is more work to do.'