From Third World to best in the country

The emergency unit was being officially reopened today by Health Secretary Alan Milburn after two years of work costing £5.5 million.

The old unit had been described by staff as "almost Third World".

Plans for the new department were given the go-ahead by Bradford City Council in March 1998. Over a two-year period, the once cramped and out-dated conditions have been developed into a clean, spacious, state-of-the-art department which is now one of the most modern and technologically advanced in Europe.

The original casualty department, which dated from the 1930s, was only a fifth the size of the new department and was designed to treat less than a third of the current workload.

During the three separate phases which saw the modernisation completed, staff were housed in temporary accommodation and often forced to work in difficult conditions.

They faced a daily barrage of abuse and violence from people demanding treatment and security was stepped up.

Doctors themselves branded existing conditions as 'Third World' in quality when the new multi-million pound project was announced in September 1996.

At the time, A&E consultant Tony Shenton said: "We have the busiest department in Yorkshire and yet we've got the worst facilities and the least space. We can't continue as we are for much longer."

Mr Shenton, head of the service, said he now worked in one of the best casualty departments in the country and said already the improvements in service were evident to patients.

Those improvements now include a range of hi-tech security measures, a ten-bay resuscitation area, spacious and light waiting areas, modern treatment cubicles, on-the-spot x-ray machines for better care of the critically injured and the latest monitoring equipment, costing £80,000.

Patients at the unit - the third busiest in the country with more than 120,000 visitors a year - are now able to be assessed initially by staff in more privacy than before and there is improved accommodation for bereaved relatives.

A separate area for children - including a waiting area, play facilities and paediatric examination and treatment rooms - which is more children-friendly than previously has also been built. During the alteration work, staff praised the public's help in minimising disruption by not attending the department unless they required urgent treatment.

The quality and training of the work done at the A&E department has prompted a number of doctors to seek work there. Last year, A&E consultants received 250 applications from doctors for four jobs.

But department consultant Pete Bradley revealed to the Telegarph &Argus that they had had problems getting cash for the development from bodies which saw Bradford as the poor cousin of Leeds.

The opening of the new A&E unit will now be followed by a wide-ranging modernisation programme across both Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke's Hospital sites.

Before visiting the BRI, Mr Milburn saw the successful Minor Injuries Unit at Wharfedale Hospital in Otley where nurses treat 24,000 patients each year. He also heard about plans for a new hospital which is to be built on the existing site.