Eight-month wait for £4.5m hospital ward to open

A new hospital ward is still waiting for its first patients, eight months after it was opened.

Scotter Ward at Gainsborough's John Coupland Hospital was finished in November 2024 and was expected to receive patients soon after.

The NHS group that runs the hospital said the arrivals had been "delayed due to necessary building survey and snagging work".

A spokesperson for Lincolnshire Community and Hospitals NHS Group added that the work had "now been completed".

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the 17-bed facility is intended to help patients avoid being sent to the county's larger hospitals, with beds for stroke patients and palliative care.

Patients will include people who have been discharged from acute hospitals but cannot yet return home, or who have been referred from A&E.

The £4.5m facility replaces an existing ward in the hospital.

"Scotter Ward at John Coupland Hospital, Gainsborough, will be moving into the newly-refurbished ward area in the coming months, as planned," a trust spokesperson said.

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