THE last out-dated Victorian ward at the Royal Bolton Hospital will soon undergo a £1 million transformation.

Work on the D2 and D4 wards, nicknamed the Nightingale ward after the Florence Nightingale movement, will complete the final phase of renovating the Minerva Road building.

The modernisation will be paid for by the Government as part of a £12 million package for North-west hospitals announced last week.

The dormitory-style wards were built at the turn of the century and are not thought to be suitable 100 years on. The open plan rooms will be converted into modern, single sex accommodation, which the Government hopes will provide greater privacy and offer more dignity for people.

Bolton has already upgraded several wards, opening the new-look C2 and C4 wards last Christmas.

Their design won praise from Health Minister John Hutton, as well as from patients and staff.

A spokesman for the Bolton Hospitals NHS Trust said: "We are delighted to receive this money which will help us in our rolling programme of upgrading." Health minister Hazel Blears said that the money would benefit mainly older patients who were often placed on these wards.

"Older people have supported the NHS all their lives and it is only right that we honour our commitment to them to provide the appropriate patient-centred care," she said.

"They, above all others, have a right to expect care in an environment that offers them privacy and peace and helps to maintain personal dignity.

"The Nightingale ward, though suited to the delivery of care in its day, is outmoded and cannot provide the sort of environment which patients want and need today."