Hospital bosses are to spend £400,000 on expanding an accident and emergency department - the first wide scale improvement since it was built 30 years ago.

Steeton-based Airedale General Hospital's single bay resuscitation unit and small staff restroom are to be redeveloped.

The work is being financed by a £300,000 government hand-out and £100,000 from the Trust's capital programme.

The project involves re-designing the unit to accommodate three bays - two for adults and one for children - and constructing new facilities for staff, including an office for medical staff and a restroom. The scheme is designed to cope with the increasing work-load - the number of patients using the A&E department has increased from 38,000 in 1992 to 46,000 in 1999.

Trust planner John Sutcliffe said it was hoped to have the scheme completed before next winter. A detailed plan has now been submitted to Bradford Council planners for approval.

"At present we have one resuscitation bay which was what the hospital was designed with when it was built 30 years ago," he said.

"That was about right then, but there has been a steady increase in the workload and we need three bays now."

He said the new bays would displace some of the staff accommodation and so it was proposed to construct an area to provide a rest room, changing and shower facilities and an office for medical staff.

"The rest room at present is a room about ten feet square with a boiler in one corner," said Mr Sutcliffe.

The new facilities would be a big improvement for staff and also for patients, who included accident victims and stroke patients.

The hospital management team won the money from the government following an announcement in the summer that funds for modernising A&E units was available.

"We learned that some modernisation money was available from the government but we only had 24 hours to finalise a bid," added Mr Sutcliffe.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.