Emergency centre to open after five-month delay

The opening of Scarborough Hospital's new urgent and emergency care centre was put back due to a boiler fault

A new £47m urgent and emergency care centre could finally open in May after a faulty boiler delayed it by several months, according to health bosses.

The centre at Scarborough Hospital was due to be fully operational in November, but its opening was pushed back until the spring after one of the site's four boilers malfunctioned and had to be replaced.

The new facility will have a new CT scanner and two new X-ray machines and a secure room for highly infectious diseases.

Simon Morritt, chief executive of York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said the opening would be a "hugely important milestone for Scarborough".

The new centre will have a specialised area for highly infectious diseases, the trust says

Mr Morritt said: "Our priority has always been to ensure we do not move in until we are confident the building is safe and functional for staff and patients.

"I am delighted to say we have received assurance from our contractors that this is now the case."

The urgent and emergency care centre was set to almost double the existing space at Scarborough Hospital and was the largest capital investment by the trust, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Mr Morritt said the handover of the building was scheduled for the end of this month, "allowing for a planned and phased approach to final testing, intensive cleaning, and occupation".

"We are now working towards starting the clinical moves in the last week of April, with a view to being fully operational at the start of May."

Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.