GOOD progress is being made on the expansion of Fairfield Hospital’s £2.25 million accident and emergency department, say health chiefs.

Thousands of patients from East Lancashire use the Bury hospital every year.

Work started on in November, 2012, and was expected finish last November.

However construction stalled last June after the original contractors, Thomas Winstanley & Son, went into liquidation.

Bury-based firm Thomas Barnes & Sons PLC was then appointed to carry out the work and the new is now due to be finished this July.

Dr Kassim Ali, consultant in A&E medicine and clinical lead at Fairfield, said: “The improved physical layout and expansion of clinical treatment areas will allow the A&E department to streamline patients more effectively and reduce waiting times by separating patients with minor injuries from those who are critically ill.”