Our Emergency Department provides care 24 hours a day for people with serious, life-threatening illness and injury. The Emergency Department is based at Queen Alexandra Hospital and offers dedicated space for children and adults.
Our new Emergency Department opened in November 2024 and will continue to provide emergency care to our communities in a more modern environment.
While we hope you will never need to visit the department, you can find out what to expect if you do and the different areas you may be cared for in below. We have two entrances into the Emergency Department, one for adults and another for children. Ambulances arrive through a separate entrance.
If you could be cared for by a more appropriate service, our team may redirect you after triage. Please remember Urgent Treatment Centres can support with injuries such as broken bones as they can carry out x-rays where appropriate, as well as treat wounds that need stitches. You can find your nearest UTC here.
If you are directed to our Emergency Department through 111, you will still be triaged on arrival.
Waiting area In our waiting area we have TV screens and other information available to you, plus a vending machine and toilet facilities. The reception desk as well as two triage rooms are located within the waiting area, this is where you will be asked to provide personal information to us so our team can quickly assess what the most appropriate pathway for your needs is.
If while in our waiting area you start to feel worse or your condition changes, please let our reception team know.
Urgent Care (for adults) Urgent Care look after patients with a range of urgent conditions that cannot be appropriately cared for elsewhere. The team will make an assessment and either provide any treatment needed or help you reach the right service for your needs. The Urgent Care area has its own procedure room and plaster room with care being provided in both individual bays and chair spaces.
Majors (for adults) Majors is the term we use to describe the area of our Emergency Department where patients are likely to need very frequent observations or treatment. These patients can be very unwell and require a bed; however, we also have four chair areas within the department for patients who are well enough to be seated. We have 32 bays and 16 chair spaces within this department.
Resus Resus is where our most poorly patients are. This could be someone with a severe infection, or someone whose heart has stopped. Our Emergency Department team work with other specialists from across our hospital to give life-saving treatment in this area.
We understand it will be scary to have a loved one receiving this type of care, so have private space available to family members who may wish to wait nearby.
Our Resus area offers eight bays for adults. There is a separate area within the Children’s Emergency Department for children who need resuscitation support.
The Children's Emergency Department provides emergency care for children and young people up to the age of 18. It is located alongside the main Emergency Department at QA Hospital and is also open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
We have worked closely with parents, patients and staff to make sure the department is as welcoming and child centred as possible with an observed play area, cubicles for privacy, a sensory room, colourful signage and artwork throughout. We have a small separate waiting area for teenagers located alongside our children’s waiting area.
If your child comes to us via ambulance, they will enter through their own door from the ambulance deck and be taken to one of three areas: resus, majors or minors. Our team will explain what is happening and why your child is there, and if required we can provide somewhere quiet for you to wait. With the new department, all ambulances for children will now enter the hospital through the Emergency Department. Previously some children have gone directly to our Children’s Assessment Unit (CAU), but please be assured our Children’s Emergency Department team will continue to work closely with your child’s regular clinical team to care for them together.
The safety of your child is our team’s number one concern, so if you have any questions, please speak to the team caring for your child.
You can watch a tour of the Children's Emergency Department below.
When you arrive at the Emergency Department, you will need to check-in with our reception team. They will ask you questions about your reason for attending and personal information such as your contact details and who we can contact on your behalf in an emergency. You will then be asked to take a seat in the waiting area where you will be called forward by one of our clinicians for an initial assessment.
During this assessment you will be asked some more questions about your reason for attending, offered pain relief if needed and have any immediate tests that you need such as taking your blood pressure or checking your heart rate carried out. You will then either be asked to wait for a more detailed assessment from one of our clinicians or redirected to another service or department if appropriate. We will always explain why this is happening, but if you have any questions please ask.
If you need to be seen by someone in the Emergency Department, you will be called through to one of the areas mentioned above. We call people through based on how urgent their medical needs are or the availability of the specialist they need to see. This means you may see people who arrived after you being called through first. We will try to keep you updated on how long the wait is, but this time can change if new emergencies or very sick people arrive unexpectedly in the department.
We know this can be frustrating, but if you are worried or start to feel worse, please speak to a member of the team who can help. We also ask that you show our staff the same respect and kindness we expect them to show you. Violence, aggression, intimidation and abuse is not part of any of our jobs and is frightening for our staff and other patients. This type of behaviour will not be tolerated and may lead to prosecution.
We have toilets, as well as baby changing and baby feeding facilities in both waiting areas, as well as a Changing Places toilet just inside the adults’ entrance.
QA Hospital has a Costa Coffee shop open 24 hours a day in the main hospital. To access this, you will need to walk around the outside of the hospital and enter through the main or East entrances. We also have a vending machine in the waiting areas.
Our Emergency Department (ED) is located on B Level.
This department can only be accessed via the ED entrance, which is on the east of the Queen Alexandra Hospital site.
There is a drop-off area outside of the department.
Life-threatening emergencies are different for adults and children.
For adults these include:
- signs of a heart attack
- signs of a stroke
- heavy bleeding
- seizures
For children these include:
- seizures
- choking
- heavy bleeding
- severe injuries
If you visit the Emergency Department and it is not a serious injury or life-threatening emergency, the team will redirect you to the most appropriate care. This may include an Urgent Treatment Centre.
