It provides NHS health care services for the people in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton and surrounding areas.

The intention was to achieve VAT benefits, as well as pay bill savings, by recruiting new staff on less expensive non-NHS contracts.

[5] It featured prominently in a report by the Health Service Journal in 2020 on NHS trusts under “enhanced monitoring” by the General Medical Council, because of concerns from junior doctors.

Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust maintains a Renal Dialysis Unit on the hospital site.

[citation needed] A large number of nursing students from the University of Salford train at Bolton in each of the Adult, Child and Mental Health disciplines.