A HOSPITAL ward which was controversially shut because of a staffing crisis will reopen next week.

Ward B4, a rehabilitation ward at Blackburn's Queen's Park Hospital, will open on Monday after being shut for 10 weeks.

Health chiefs said the 19-bed ward -- one of three rehabilitation wards at the hospital -- was closed because there were too many empty posts and staff on maternity and sickness leave.

Dena Marshall, chief operating officer at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "I am pleased that we will be reopening the ward as planned, following an improvement in the overall staffing situation."

Trust managers were last month called before Blackburn with Darwen Council's health watchdog panel to explain themselves.

Chairman Tony Humphrys said: "It has reopened on time and we are grateful for that. It will give treatment back to the patients who desperately need it and do not want to be transferred anywhere else."