A DISUSED ward at Wharfedale Hospital, Otley, could be reopened in a bid to prevent the temporary loss of beds.

Workers at the hospital feared that up to 14 beds could be lost while work on the new hospital was taking place.

But at a meeting late yesterday afternoon, it was hoped that an agreement could be reached.

Trust bosses were expected to tell hospital staff at Wharfedale that money had been found which would cover the cost of bringing the ward back into use.

Work on the new £14 million part three storey and part four storey hospital is due to start in May and will be built in a quadrangle next to the current hospital in Newall Carr Road.

But in order to get construction vehicles onto the site, it had been revealed that buildings would have to be demolished with the loss of beds.

Workers at an open staff meeting at the hospital earlier this month suggested that a disused ward could be reopened while building work - likely to take almost two years - took place.

They were also concerned that some workers would have to be relocated to other sites.

But the meeting was told that the no longer used Ward One, currently used to stock records, would cost in the region of £125,000 to bring back into use - even though one hospital employee offered to carry out redecoration during his spare time.

Staff at the meeting were worried that the loss of beds, although temporary, would be difficult to get back.

Yesterday, a spokesman for the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said: "We hope by the end of Wednesday (yesterday) this will be sorted out.

"Some extra money has been found within the trust which will allow us to bring Ward One back into use.

"It had been thought that bringing the ward back into use would cost more."

He added that although nothing had been decided it was likely that even with the use of the previously disused ward, that other changes would have to be made.

Graham Hoult, non executive director of the Leeds North West Primary Care Trust - which will come into being on April 1 and could in the future be responsible for the running of the hospital, said it was reassuring : "When the decision was made to build the new hospital on the existing site there were always going to be some difficulties in keeping services going, but we were assured that it would be possible."

He added it was reassuring to learn that there would hopefully be no interference in services at the hospital - as had originally been pledged by the acute trust.

"It is however imperative that throughout the next two years we retain every resource we can to relieve the pressure on Leeds, and to retain our own existing staff in a climate where the NHS is short of experienced staff."

l As previously reported in the Wharfedale Observer, the new Wharfedale Hospital will be the first in the Leeds trust to be built under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI).

HBG Projects and its partner United Medical Enterprises (UME) will own the building and be responsible for its upkeep for 30 years, after which it reverts back to the NHS.

PFI schemes are a Government initiative aimed at fostering public-private sector partnerships.