Plans to revamp Airedale Hospital's accident and emergency department are to go under the microscope.

Airedale NHS Trust is seeking £600,000 from a multi-million pound pot of cash set aside for the health service by Health Secretary Frank Dobson.

Now hospital bosses have been requested to submit more information about plans to revamp their departments by Mr Dobson.

Last month the Trust drew up a document requesting £300,000 for new X-ray equipment and a similar amount to establish a special admissions ward.

But they had only two days to present all the evidence supporting their bid before it had to be submitted to Whitehall.

Airedale finance chief Janet Crouch said officers had now been asked to supply additional information about their plans for the project by today.

"Last month when we learned the money was available we had a very short time to get the bid together - a matter of days," she said.

"But the department has got back to us asking for more information - essentially more details about what we intend to do. We are replying today."

The first £300,000 is to be spent on putting the temporary admissions ward - set up this winter by converting a surgical ward - on a more permanent footing.

The ward is used to assess emergency patients and decide whether they should go on to be admitted to an appropriate ward for treatment, or be sent home and looked after under the community care scheme.

The other £300,000 is wanted to buy new X-ray equipment to replace existing kit, some of which is as old as the hospital which was built in 1970.

The bid for the new money follows the Trust's successful campaign to win £187,000 from the Government to set up two high-dependency beds - a half-way treatment unit between general wards and intensive care.

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