A hospital ward which was originally built to cope with extra patients during the Covid-19 pandemic is set to remain closed two years after it was meant to open.

The £7.4 million Olive Ward at Darent Valley Hospital, Dartford, was supposed to open in December 2021 but “is not anticipated to be available for winter 2023/24 due to ongoing plumbing issues”, the hospital trust has revealed.

Construction of the 18-bed ward was confirmed in July 2021 and was expected to open a few months later in December. However, this was then pushed back to March 2022.

Some 22 months on, the ward is still yet to welcome its first patient.

The trust still intends to open it, to deal with patients who are battling infections.

A spokeswoman for Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust explained that the hospital “is ready to use the facilities as soon as it is safe to do so”.

The Trust told KentOnline in June that it hoped to take over the ward by the end of the summer.

The hospital itself was built under a Private Finance Initiative (PFI), which is a partnership between the public and private sectors. It means while the trust operates services from there, the building itself belongs to a private landlord.

The spokeswoman added: “The Trust has still not taken occupancy of the ward due to the ongoing plumbing issues.

“The PFI landlord of the Darent Valley site continues to work with its suppliers to remediate these issues and the Trust is examining all options to ensure we are able to occupy as soon as possible.

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

In a trust document seen by KentOnline, there is “no opening date” for the ward due “to ongoing technical issues and is not anticipated to be available for winter 2023/24”.

According to Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust directors, the ward was “designed specifically with the patient in mind” and to help ease the demands of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The construction of the ward has meant the loss of 10 car parking spaces but the hospital says there are already plans in place to recoup the lost spaces.

The ward was built using a modular building process, designed to speed up the project, with the majority of construction taking place off-site and then craned into position.

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

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