NEWS
‘New’ Broadmoor Hospital opens over 150 years after its ‘predecessor’
Last month patients and staff moved into the new Broadmoor Hospital, which replaces a facility where many buildings pre-dated the foundation of the NHS. Constructed by Kier, and opened over 150 years after the original hospital, the new hospital will provide multidisciplinary treatment for up to 210 men aged over 18 with mental illness and personality disorder, who ‘represent a high degree of risk to themselves and others’. Located in the existing grounds to the west of the old site near Crowthorne in Berkshire, the hospital has been purpose built for the West London NHS Trust to provide psychiatric care and rehabilitation in a high-secure setting.
The three new ward buildings incorporate 10 wards, and there are ward gardens, an entrance building, and a central building, where patients can undergo a range of therapies, and vocational, educational, and physical activities. Facilities in the central building include: l A café, shop, and hairdresser; l Woodwork, pottery, and craft rooms; l Classrooms for education and vocational training;
l A multi-faith sanctuary; l A physical healthcare area, where patients can see a GP and a dentist.
Staff, patients, and carers, were closely involved in the design and artwork, ‘focusing on wellbeing and safety’, with key features including: l Spacious ward areas, with plenty of natural light and access to ward gardens;
l A modern layout, which allows staff to observe patients effectively and maintain a safe environment;
l A multidisciplinary team located on every ward.
The old hospital – much of it dating from the 1860s, was acknowledged to be ‘unfit for the effective, safe care and rehabilitation of patients’. The old buildings were ‘poorly configured’, and ‘lacked basic standards of dignity, privacy, cleanliness
Awards success for Life Rooms team
The Design in Mental Health Network’s commitment to engagement with service-users, carers, and direct care staff, was emphasised recently, when a group attended November’s Building Better Healthcare Awards 2019 in London alongside DiMHN President, Joe Forster.
He said: “Small-scale projects can
have a positive impact out of proportion to their size. One such scheme, the ‘Life Rooms’ service at Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, won Best Interior Design Project (Refurbishment).” Neil Tunstall, Operations manager within the Trust’s Social Inclusion and Participation Team, explained: “I am really proud of our work at The Life Rooms, and our buildings are a partner in this work. I am personally invested in all our buildings. The service has been co-produced, and is a fantastic example of working side by side, from service concept to design features.” Neil Tunstall was accompanied to
receive the award by Liverpool site manager and Vocational Skills lead, Anthony Muldowney. Having been presented with it, they returned to the stage as the Clinician’s Choice winner.
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A delighted Neil Tunstall said this ‘left them speechless’. Joe Forster added: “We look forward to hearing more about the Life Rooms in a presentation at our 2020 conference in June.” Also attending was Elizabeth
Wilhide, distinguished design author and novelist, who is lending her advice and expertise to another presentation in preparation for Design in Mental Health 2020. This will be another collaboration with service-users and carers, addressing the role of the built environment in the integration of care with community. Pictured, left to right, are: Anthony
Muldowney, Neil Tunstall, Elizabeth Wilhide, and Joe Forster.
and amenities’, while the layout presented risks to staff safety, with poor sightlines. In 2009, the Care Quality Commission highlighted concerns ‘about the buildings, beds, layout, and healthcare’ at Broadmoor, recommending redevelopment ‘be progressed without delay’.
Other features of the new hospital
include: l Disability access to all areas; l Dedicated visiting rooms on the wards, plus a ‘main visits’ suite;
l Comfortable, spacious, and private waiting areas;
l An improved child visits suite, close to the main reception, with an enclosed outside garden.
Views sought for HTM 66 update
The Design in Mental Health Network is involved – together with infrastructure advisory specialist, Archus, NHS England, and NHS Improvement – in the update of HTM 66, Cubicle Curtain Track, which covers design for curtain tracking and rail systems, and is seeking views and opinions to help shape the new guidance from a wide range of informed stakeholders. DiMHN chair, Jenny Gill, said: “In
order to inform the development of the document, we would be pleased to hear from all those with any involvement in curtain rails and tracking in the mental health environment, including: clinicians; patients; support personnel (FM/ Estates/Housekeeping); manufacturers, designers, and installers.” She added: “We are also working on
the production of a new title, provisionally called ‘Improving patient safety in Mental Healthcare Environments – reducing risk of self- harm from ligature points’. If you have an interest or an opinion in either of these topics, please email me in the first instance, at:
jgill@dimhn.org”
JANUARY 2020 | THE NETWORK
©West London NHS Trust
©West London NHS Trust
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