The 28-bed ward is the first dedicated general medicine winter ward to open at the Queen's Medical Centre (QMC) in 10 years.

Tasso Gazis, divisional director for nedicine, said the ward was one of a number of initiatives NUH had introduced to manage winter pressures, the planning for which started in July last year.

‘The consequence of having the extra emergency capacity is that we then don't have to cancel cancer care, elective care and operations,' Gazis said.

‘If we don't plan the urgent and emergency care correctly then we end up overspilling into all those other areas. We have not, to date, cancelled any elective care due to winter pressures – part of that is because of staff going above and beyond, and part is due to initiatives like this.'

He added: ‘Like elsewhere in the NHS, we know that people are still waiting far longer than we'd like them to wait. We've worked closely with system partners to make sure that people can be discharged as soon as it is safe to do so.

‘As a result, we've got around 100 fewer people waiting to leave our hospitals than we did at this time last year. And that is due to collaborative working with our system partners – the hard work of our colleagues inside the hospital, and the hard work of colleagues outside of the hospital.'

The ward opening followed the launch of Newell Ward – another dedicated winter ward – at City Hospital in December 2024 and the repurposing of a ward to treat people with respiratory conditions in November 2024.