A hospital ward is still closed 18 months after it was due to open.

The NHS spent £7.4 million on building Olive Ward in the hope of easing waiting times and increasing bed capacity at Darent Valley Hospital, Dartford.

The 18-bed ward was ‘designed specifically with the patient in mind’ and to help ease the demands of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust directors.

It was meant to open in December 2021 after construction began in the July. This was put back to March 2022.

KentOnline was told in August last year that the ward was facing ‘ongoing water and plumbing issues’.

However, 18 months after the original opening date, the ward still hasn’t opened.

A spokesman for the trust said that there is hope that the ward will be in use in the coming months.

They said: “The trust has still not taken occupancy of the ward due to the ongoing plumbing issues.

“The landlord of the Darent Valley site continues to work with its suppliers to remediate these issues.

“The trust is ready to use the facilities as soon as they become available to it, which we hope will be during the summer months.

“The additional costs to fix the plumbing issues are being incurred by the PFI partner so the cost to the trust has not changed.”

The cash for the facility, which has single rooms with en-suite facilities, came from a central NHS pot and will increase its capacity from 463 beds to 481.

Construction of the ward, which was confirmed in July 2021, has meant the loss of 10 parking spaces in the hospital grounds.

But there are already plans in place to recoup the lost spaces.

Olive Ward was built using a modular building process, designed to speed up the project, with the majority of construction taking place offsite and craned into location.

It has been positioned at the eastern end of the hospital, next to Cherry Ward, and replaces the building known as the Bungalow.

The L-shaped building will be connected to the main hospital by a new corridor.