A look inside QA Hospital's new Accident & Emergency Department as opening date revealed - in 63 pictures

The new A&E department at Queen Alexandra Hospital will open to the public on Tuesday, November 26 at 8am. The existing department will be in use right up until the 8am cut off point in which time new patients will be directed to the new building.

SEE MORE: WATCH: See inside QA's new A&E department as opening date revealed

The News were given the chance to look inside the new department before it opened to the public. Workers were putting the finishing touches to rooms while snag tests were completed as the culmination of two years of physical building work, and many more years in planning, neared completion.

Patient experience has been taken into account with every decision made on the layout of the facility. Children and adults will now have their own separate departments with different patient and ambulance entrances. The children’s department also features a teenage area to cater for older children, as well having changing and baby feeding areas to try and make it as convenient as possible for parents in what can be a stressful and difficult time.

The building, which was supported by £58 million of national funding, boasts a range of improved facilities including double the current resus capacity from four adult bays to eight.

There is also two further paediatric resus bays for children, a new CT scanner for patients requiring a specialist scan, and faster access to radiology teams for scans and tests. It will not only be beneficial to patients but also to staff with dedicated area for them to rest.

Peter Russell, clinical director of the emergency department, was keen to emphasise it is still an emergency department and people should only visit in the case of an emergency.

Peter said: “The current emergency department is very old and fit for the work that we undertake, this has absolutely been made for patients that are in need of emergency treatment. It is not necessarily providing a new service, just an enhanced one for those who are particularly unwell and in medical, surgical and traumatic emergencies.

“All of the pathways are still available for patients in the region to go to urgent treatment centres, minor injury units and their own primary care service. Those services will not be added here. It’s just enhancing the service we have here at the moment.”

Here are 63 pictures behind the scenes of the new A&E department: