Mental health centre plan for Lincolnshire
Secure unit to be built on St George's Hospital site
Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust has announced plans to build a new 10-bed secure psychiatric ward on the St George’s Hospital site.
Currently patients from the area have to travel outside the county to receive treatment.
But, under the new plans, the trust will invest a ‘significant amount of money’ in a new purpose-built facility.
Ian Jerams, the trust’s director of operations, said: “It has been well documented in the national and local media that sometimes acutely-unwell mental health patients have to travel outside of the county to receive the specialist support they need, which is not currently available in Lincolnshire.
"Commissioners and the trust are continually looking for ways to support people closer to home as we recognise that being away from family networks is not helpful to patients for their ongoing recovery."
The site at St George’s Hospital already houses several mental health services including inpatient wards, drug and alcohol services and eating disorder services.
Plans for the new unit would include an extension into existing courtyard space and the erection of fencing to create a new secure garden area that would face inward on the hospital site.
