The NHS is to open its first Accident & Emergency unit for elderly patients amid fears that casualty units are leaving the frail to wait too long for help.

Patients over 80 years old arriving at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital will be sent straight to the older people's emergency department.

Senior doctors said the new unit aims to ensure quicker assessment of elderly patients, in a bid to ensure they can be given the right help, instead of being forced to endure long stays in hospital, which can increase their fraility.

The new unit, opening later this month, means that around 50 patients a day will be seen by the unit’s team team of A&E consultants, consultant geriatricians and specialist nurses.

The hospital’s chief executive said the new department was a “massive step forward” in improving emergency care, with an expansion in paediatric care also planned.