Sheffield Health & Social Care NHS Foundation Trust is able to start construction of a new psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU) on the former Oakwood site at the Longley Centre at Northern General Hospital following approvals by the trust board of directors and foundation trust regulator, Monitor.
The £6.5m investment will see £4.5m spent on the 10-bed PICU, which will be futureproofed to enable two further bedrooms to be created if required. There will also be three separate enclosed garden spaces, an occupational therapy room, a family room and a prayer/quiet room. Another £2m will be spent on enabling works including installing electricity, drainage and water; and the provision of a new modern entrance for the Longley Centre building including an external refurbishment of the façade elevation and replacement of the first-floor windows.
At a short ground-breaking ceremony held on World Mental Health Day, Professor Alan Walker CBE, the trust’s chairman, accompanied by a service user representative, dug the first turf to mark the start of the project.
Professor Walker said: “The need to improve mental health facilities for people living in Sheffield has long been recognised locally, so we are delighted that we can now begin construction work. This is a tremendous step forward towards our aim of providing high-quality care in first-class accommodation for our service users and staff.”
Kevan Taylor, chief executive, added: “We are delighted to be working with Interserve on this highly-important build. The new expanded PICU will meet the needs of the diverse population of Sheffield and service users will no longer have to go out of Sheffield for PICU treatment.
“This will mean that carers and family members will be able to maintain contact with service users more easily and that community services will be able to liaise and engage with service users more effectively. We believe that the new build will provide a more healing environment for service users and a better working environment for our much valued staff.”
The new scheme has been designed by P+HS Architects and building work is being undertaken by Interserve, which won the contract through a competitive tender process.
John Gittins, Yorkshire divisional director, said: “We are excited at the prospect of working with a forward thinking Trust to deliver an exemplar project that will benefit the people of Sheffield. We have learnt many lessons on previous projects of a similar nature to minimise disruption during the construction works and we will aim to maximise local, training, employment and supply chain opportunities to leave a lasting legacy for the city.”
The new PICU is scheduled to open in autumn 2015.
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