A NEW East Lancashire psychiatric intensive care unit which could not be opened because of a lack of staff will finally open its doors next month.

The £700,000 unit at Burnley General Hospital was officially opened in December but not brought into immediate use because of a difficulty in recruiting staff.

Burnley Health Care Trust chief executive David Chew said hospital managers had worked hard to recruit staff to allow the new facilities to become available to patients.

Half of the unit was opened for patient care this week. Another bed will be available from April 8 with the full compliment of six specialist beds being operational from April 22.

In total 34 staff have been recruited so far leaving only a couple more vacancies to be filled.

Mr Chew said he was delighted with progress made to recruit the staff required to enable patients access to the specialised facility.

The mental health unit remained unused for nearly three months because health bosses couldn't recruit the staff to run it.

It was officially opened on December 17 by Professor Rob Kerwin from the Institute of Psychiatry at Maudsley Hospital in London.

The six bed unit is designed to enable the most dependent mental health patients to be treated in a protective and supportive environment.