Integrated Health Projects (IHP) recently held a topping-out ceremony for the new mental health facilities for the Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
The event, held at the new mental health facility at Derby Kingsway Hospital, was attended by Mark Powell, chief executive of Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Simon Corben, director and head of profession for NHS Estates and Facilities at NHS England, and Geoff Neild, programme director for the Making Room for Dignity Programme, alongside other members of the project team.
In a traditional, a bagpiper led the guests to the rooftop. There, IHP Works Manager Mick Murphy tied a bough to the structure, symbolically poured concrete, and presented a tankard to Geoff Neild.
Rethinking mental healthcare facilities in the UK
The new mental health facilities are part of the £150m Making Room for Dignity Programme created by the NHS Foundation Trust. This project, funded through a combination of central, regional, and Trust resources, aims to overhaul mental health inpatient facilities in the UK.
The project will encompass the Derwent Unit, a 54-bed mental health facility for Adult Acute Care at Chesterfield Royal Hospital, and the Carsington Unit, another 54-bed mental health facility for Adult Acute Care. It will also include a 14-bed Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit at Kingsway Hospital in Derby.
The development will create state-of-the-art amenities
Both Adult Acute Care facilities will feature en-suite and temperature-controlled rooms, as well as shared amenities such as a therapy suite, kitchen, indoor fitness room, online library resource room, art room, and access to a secure rooftop terrace and garden for first-floor wards.
“We are proud to celebrate this significant milestone for these important projects and the exemplary collaboration demonstrated by the project team,” said James Beardmore, project manager at IHP.
“We look forward to delivering these adult acute care facilities for the Trust’s ambitious Making Room for Dignity Programme. Once completed, they will greatly improve mental healthcare services across the region,” he continued.
“The Derwent Unit at Chesterfield and Carsington Unit at Derby form the backbone of our dormitory eradication programme, giving each service user their own en-suite bedroom,” added Geoff Neild from the Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
“I am delighted that these new facilities will give staff, service users, family and friends fantastic settings in which to deliver or receive therapeutic care and support,” he concluded.
