Airedale plans new A&E unit

Work on the new unit is expected to start this autumn and will create separate adult and children’s waiting areas, a quiet room for friends and families to use during stressful events and a separate screened entrance for ambulances.

Treatment rooms would also be fitted with appropriate technology allowing A&E staff to see the results of X-rays and blood tests at the patient’s bedside.

Dr Meg Crossley, a consultant in emergency medicine at the trust and clinical lead for the project, said: “The new A&E department would be a huge improvement on our current facilities, which were designed and built in the 1960’s when not only were we seeing far fewer patients but the way we treated them was also vastly different.

“The existing A&E department deals with over 55,000 patients every year and staff struggle daily to find enough room to see and treat patients. Technology also now plays a much bigger role in treating emergency patients and the small cubicles we currently have cannot accommodate the equipment we now use.”