PART of the new Clitheroe Community Hospital closed due to a fault with the flooring has now reopened.

A section of the hospital was closed off in August just three months after the £7.8 million building opened.

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Up to 10 beds have been unable to be used after bosses discovered part of the floor had lifted and caused the vinyl to bubble, but East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (ELHT) said no patients had been turned away as a result.

At the time the trust said that work would be carried out quickly and that the ward would be reopened fully as soon as possible.

In October the trust confirmed that work would not be finished until December.

The trust has now said that another area of flooring will be replaced in the spring as a precautionary measure.

Martin Morgan, director of estates and facilities at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, apologised for the inconvenience of the work said one extra area of flooring will be replaced later in the year as a precautionary measure.

He said: “The remedial work required to replace flooring at Clitheroe Community Hospital has been substantially completed.

“Since then the 32 in-patient beds have been available for patient use.

“There remains one area of flooring which, although intact and perfectly safe for use, will be replaced purely as a precautionary measure later this year when the winter pressure on beds subsides.

“We apologise for the inconvenience this remedial works has caused and have amended our specifications to prevent the situation arising in the future.”

Mr Morgan recently gave an update on the flooring situation at the hospital to the Health and Wellbeing Partnership in the Ribble Valley.

Coun Mary Robinson, leader of Clitheroe Town Council, said the hospital was a great facility.

Speaking at the meeting she said: “It’s a shame that the hospital had early teething problems and that it happened at a busy time.

“However it’s great that it has now been fully sorted because it’s a wonderful facility for the town.

“I can’t praise it highly enough and as a patient there myself since it opened I think that it’s exactly what Clitheroe needed.

“The old workhouse, where the hospital had been based, was not fit for purpose and it’s good that this new building is now fully operational.”