Royal Blackburn Hospitals plan for extension of A&E department PLANS for a two-storey extension to the emergency department at the Royal Blackburn Hospital have been submitted. An application has been created by Adam Richardson from Gilling Dod Architects, on behalf of James Maguire of East Lancashire Hospitals Trust, for the grassed area next to the current accident and emergency department. In the planning document it said that the extension is to ‘provide Covid-19 emergency capacity’. It added: “The proposed development consists of a new two-storey extension linked back to the existing building providing additional clinical space at ground floor.