New A and E for Tameside General Hospital

After two years work the new A and E Department has opened at Tameside General Hospital.

Hospital staff say that they have a bigger, better and more patient focused unit. The hospital has attracted adverse publicity in recent years, but now they say they are looking to the future.

Consultant Muhammad Qureshi says that the department has improved immeasurably, "There were difficulties initially when it was a single emergency department, with not a lot of space and people had to wait a long time to be seen, but now we have 'streams' of patients so the paediatric patients can be seen in a different stream and we can provide much better quality in a very much controlled environment."

What has actually been built is a much needed extension. Twenty years ago, the hospital dealt with around seventy thousand emergency cases every year. Today that figure's risen to more than seventy five thousand. With a separate children's accident and emergency unit, a dedicated minor injuries area, a major accident area and an extended resuscitation zone the hospital believes that its three million pounds well spent.