WORK has started to re-shape Accident and Emergency at Colchester General Hospital to help increase capacity.

When explaining the problems faced by the department the numbers tell the picture. The department was originally built in the 1980s to cope with 35,000 visits each year, but now deals with more than double the figure.

In the past five years alone the number of patients going through the doors has risen by more than 8,000.

To tackle the issue the Colchester Hospitals University Foundation NHS Trust hopes in the long-term to completely re-build the department. Plans to relocate the hospital pharmacy, next to the ward, will provide an ideal opportunity to expand the department more permanently.

An interim plan to tackle the twin issues of space and movement began yesterday when at 3am a canopy covering the ambulance entrance was torn down to improve access.

The plans also include using an internal courtyard and adding a temporary building at the front of the department to act as a reception and waiting area for less serious cases - known as minors. These are still awaiting approval from Colchester Council’s planning team.

As well as creating more space the new plan also aims to use the space more effectively. At present the journey each patient takes can be quite jumbled, with child patients - who have their own unit regardless of the type of injury - having to pass through the minors’ waiting room to go to X-ray, and other similarly jumbled paths.

When the department is reconfigured it will see the four areas of resuscitation, majors, minors and children grouped better, each with better access to supporting wards such as x-ray, alongside additional bays in each section.