James Paget Hospital: Children's casualty department officially opens

The new children's emergency department has been officially opened by a cast of toy and movie characters

A new children's casualty department has been officially opened by a cast of toy characters.

James Paget Hospital, in Gorleston-on-Sea in Norfolk, will welcome its first patients to the new department next week.

The paediatric emergency unit was now double the size of the previous one.

Justine Goodwin, from the hospital, said the new department had been built to make visiting hospital a less "daunting prospect" for youngsters.

"[It] provides more space, a quieter environment and greater privacy for patients and their families... separate from the adult area," she said.

The children's emergency department has been rebuilt to offer more space and privacy

The hospital serves the wider Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft area.

Young patients will still use the main entrance to the hospital's casualty unit, but will then be ushered through to the dedicated department.

The hospital said the brightly-coloured area offered more assessment cubicles as well as separate reception and triage areas, a wellbeing room, two resuscitation rooms and an automated medication dispensing system.

The unit took about five months to build and is the latest in a series of developments at the emergency department over the last two years.

The expansion has seen part of the hospital's front facade extended to create more assessment and treatment cubicles and a larger waiting room.

Work was now due to take place on the minor injuries unit as part of the modernisation project.