A new £23m inpatient mental health facility designed for adults to provide 24 hour care has opened at St Ann’s Hospital in Poole, delivered by Dorset HealthCare.
Dorset HealthCare is a specific NHS Trust that is responsible for community health and mental health services across Dorset.
The facility, called Chaddesley House, is part of a £70.6m investment under the New Hospital Programme to redevelop mental health inpatient facilities in Dorset.
The redevelopment includes the newly opened facilities at St Ann’s Hospital in Poole, and a high-intensity unit for children and young people at Pebble Lodge in Bournemouth.
Both projects expand inpatient capacity and modernise accommodation for adults and young people receiving mental health treatment.
Construction of the new two-storey unit at St Ann’s Hospital began two years ago, and the new facility now houses two specialist adult wards.
The first floor of the unit, the Chine Ward, relocates female patients from a listed building elsewhere on the hospital site and offers improved facilities and an additional 14 patient beds.
The ground floor consists of psychiatric intensive care units, with eight beds for males and five beds for females.
Additionally, space has been left at St Ann's for extensive refurbishment and modernisation works, which are expected to be completed over the course of 2027/28.
The facility is now open, but patients are scheduled to begin moving into the facility at the end of the month.
Pebble Lodge in Bournemouth, which provides inpatient care for children and young people, is also being expanded and upgraded under the New Hospital programme plans.
According to Dorset HealthCare, the £17.9m development is expected to provide an eight-bed unit designed around patient privacy, therapeutic activity and staff wellbeing.
Construction work began following approval of the full business case by NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care.
Dorset HealthCare said the Bournemouth facility is expected to open to patients in June.