Health & Lifestyle | Posted on December 11th, 2024 | return to news
Steel signing’ ceremony for Dorset mental health facilities
Steel beams now in place on new inpatient facilities under construction in Bournemouth and Poole and set to be opened in 2026.
Mental health facilities in Dorset are to be enhanced significantly in the future.
A ‘steel signing’ ceremony has marked a major milestone on two building schemes for services for Dorset residents struggling with severe mental health issues.
The event celebrated the final steel beam being put in place on new inpatient facilities under construction in Bournemouth and Poole, run by Dorset HealthCare and funded by the Government’s New Hospitals Programme (NHP).
The first project will see the creation of an eight-bed high psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU) for children and young people at Pebble Lodge in Alumhurst Road, Bournemouth.
This will be the first of its kind locally and will mean seriously-ill young people can be cared for close to home instead of being sent for specialist treatment elsewhere – potentially hundreds of miles from family and friends.
The second development, at St Ann’s Hospital in Sandbanks, will provide a replacement adult PICU alongside additional adult mental health inpatient beds with improved accommodation (ensuring all patients have their own rooms) and a new ‘place of safety’ suite for patients detained under the Mental Health Act.
Dorset HealthCare was allocated more than £70m for the new facilities, which are being built by Kier Construction and are on course to open in 2026.
Representatives from Dorset HealthCare, the NHP and Kier all signed the beams to mark completion of the buildings’ steel frames.
Morad Margoum, the Trust’s service director for children, young people and families, mental health and learning disabilities, said: “It’s great to see these facilities taking shape. Once complete, they will allow us to care for seriously ill local people close to friends and family in purpose-built, modern accommodation. This will greatly reduce the need for out-of-area placements and improve people’s chances of a full recovery.”
The New Hospitals Programme’s Executive Delivery Director Darren Crook said: “It was a privilege to join our partners to mark this milestone in the construction of these new facilities, backed by more than £70m in Government funding, which will be transformational in delivery of mental health care for patients and their families across Dorset and the wider region.”
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