A NEW �2.2 million patient ward at Lister Hospital has moved a step closer to completion after being given the go ahead by the hospital’s trust board.

The scheme, which was approved alongside a redevelopment for the hospital’s mortuary by the East and North Herts Trust Board, will see a new 29-bed ward created from a floor within the Lister’s tower block.

It will be used mainly for gynaecology services which will allow the services’ longer term home to be upgraded.

The Trust’s chief executive Nick Carver said: “We needed to press ahead with both of these two schemes to ensure we were able to meet the immediate clinical needs of our patients.

“By the end of 2011, the Trust’s new maternity service will be based at the Lister, which is also when all gynaecology services are brought together at the hospital.

“The creation of ward 11A allows this to happen as a stepping stone to moving to the service’s longer term home in ward 7A at the Lister,

“We also need to make urgent changes to the hospital’s mortuary, both to meet the Trust’s future needs and more immediate regulatory requirements.”

The hospital’s mortuary is expected to cost �119,000, and will expand its current capacity as well as the range of post mortem and other services available.

Both schemes are set for completion in 2011, with the patient ward ready to accept patients in October of next year and the mortuary scheduled for completion in June.

They are the first two of 11 projects that make up the final phase for the redevelopment of Lister into the main hospital for all of east and north Hertfordshire, and parts of Bedfordshire.