THE formal opening of the £1 million refurbishment of the Accident and Emergency Department at Burnley General Hospital takes place tomorrow.

It is one of the events being held to celebrate NHS Week 2001.

Changes to the A&E department include a dedicated children's area 'kidzone' and a new gymnasium exclusively for staff use will officially open on Thursday.

Other events include the presentation of the Investors in People award on a trust-wide basis.

During the week the children's department will have display boards on the wards and in the children's out-patients' department, showing comments from patients over the years and each child attending for treatment will receive a small gift such as a pen, pencil or NHS badge.

The NHS week recognises staff and their work.

This year trust staff in Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale have treated more than 35,000 in-patients, 18,000 day cases, over 229,000 out-patient attendances, 660,000 community contacts and 60,000 accident and emergency patients.

Chris Allen, corporate services manager, said that during the year the trust had:

Met all its agreed statutory financial and activity targets

The quality of hospital food, cleanliness and patient environment were highly commended in external assessments

Significant progress made in developing plans for the re-provision of acute medical ward and out-patient facilities

New consultant appointments made in anaesthetics, urology, radiology, accident and emergency, women's health and ophthalmology.

Staff training on risk management, health and safety and stress management.