The Emergency Assessment Centre (EAC) at Wexham Park is now fully open after the hospital’s emergency department moved in.

Staff worked through the night to ensure the move to the EAC at the front of the hospital site went as smoothly as possible.

Wexham’s old emergency department (ED) within the main hospital building underwent a phased closure overnight and the new ED began accepting its first patients early on Wednesday 3 April.

Nursing staff, healthcare assistants and support services colleagues were among those who gathered at the ED entrance with a banner declaring the department “Now open”.

The new department occupies the entire ground floor of the four-storey, £49m EAC.

It has 30 single ‘majors’ rooms, giving seriously ill patients improved privacy, and eight resuscitation rooms for patients with life-threatening conditions.

There are also 10 assessment rooms as well as separate areas for children and patients with less serious conditions. 

The ED move completes the occupation of the four-storey EAC, which brings A&E services, 24-hour assessments and short stay medical and surgical care together under one roof for the first time.

This will increase collaboration between clinical teams so that patients can be assessed, diagnosed and treated better and faster, and many won’t have to be admitted to the main hospital at all.

The concept was developed by Frimley Health clinicians and designed entirely around modern patient needs, where more people are presenting with multiple, complex conditions.

The short stay medical and surgical units opened on the second floor on 23 February, while the acute assessment unit and ambulatory emergency care unit opened on the first floor on 9 March.

The third floor houses staff areas.