A backlog of vital maintenance and refurbishments means a temporary ward is needed to free up bed space at the Royal United Hospital in Bath.

The Trust wants to bring in a modular, 27-bed ward that could be used year-round – but says it will not be used to address winter pressures, or for extra capacity. It is said to create space to shuffle the patients around so the work can be carried out.

The block would take up 87 bays in the car park, but it has been deemed inefficient and is set to be reconfigured, which would increase the number of parking spaces still available by fifteen, to 562.

The plans say: “The temporary ward will enable the RUH to deliver essential refurbishment plans for key inpatient wards which have to remain operational, including intensive care, emergency surgical, elderly care and orthopaedic wards.”

Each of the sixteen wards will take six to sixteen weeks to refurbish, so the Trust is seeking planning permission for five years. It says this will also ensure value for money.

The modular ward would feature toilets, showers, clinical wash basins, storage space and an office. It would be accessed by a new corridor, so patients can remain inside the hospital at all times.

Around twenty staff are expected to move to the temporary ward, and construction work is forecasted to take six months. Bath and North East Somerset Council will decide if the plans can go ahead.

Stephen Sumner