The Emergency Department is based at the ‘front door’ of the hospital and specialises in the care of acutely ill and injured patients.

Various healthcare practitioners work in the Emergency Department, including doctors, nurses, advanced practitioners, physiotherapists, and psychiatric nurses. The care in the Emergency Department is supervised by specialist Consultants in Emergency Medicine (Emergency Physicians), whose job is to ensure that the patients passing through the departments receive emergency care of the highest possible standard.

The Emergency Department is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We have resuscitation facilities for the critically ill, cubicles to see patients with other emergency and urgent care needs, and access to investigations (such as blood tests and X-rays). The ED team aim to make a working diagnosis, start appropriate treatment/resuscitation, and give clinical advice. If the problem can’t be completely treated in the department, patients will be either admitted to hospital or referred on to other appropriate specialists.

We do not have expertise in primary care (general practice), and patients presenting with minor or primary care problems will be advised to contact their own GP or community pharmacist.

The department is open to patients of all ages with all emergency conditions, although there are some patients who may bypass Airedale to specialist centres such as the Acute Stroke Unit at Bradford or the Major Trauma Centre at Leeds. Patients may be streamed from triage directly to other areas of the hospital including the Ambulatory Care Unit.

Our Minor Injuries Unit (MIU) is also located in the Emergency Department and is open between 9am and 9pm, 7 days a week, and is staffed by Emergency Nurse Practitioners, nurses and healthcare support workers, with the oversight of an Emergency Physician.