NEW-BUILD FACILITIES
Service-users’ major say in Highgate East’s design
Akin Durowoju, Development director, Camden and Islington (C&I) NHS Foundation Trust, and Kevin Mahon, Construction Manager, BAM, explain how the Trust’s new ‘flagship’ Highgate East inpatient facility will provide first-class, 21st century mental healthcare for adults across North Central London.
The scheme is being undertaken by C&I, and forms part of the wider St Pancras Transformation programme. The Trust is a major provider of NHS mental health and substance misuse services in Camden and Islington. BAM Construction is the contractor behind the £70 m scheme, working with Ryder Architecture. The 78-bed new hospital, located in the heart of Archway in the London Borough of Islington, will create a purpose-built environment for mental health recovery. It will provide a range of spaces to support service-users, including access to a garden from each ward, quiet rooms, family visiting spaces, a faith room, and a gym.
Early engagement and co-creation with service-users Informal service-user engagement began in 2017, and focused on gathering feedback on a location for the new hospital. Many service-users told us they would like a quieter location than St Pancras, and the overall preferred location was in Highgate, on land available at the Whittington Hospital site. A formal public consultation in 2018 showed significant support for the proposal, building design work began in spring 2019, and service-
The site is on a slope, and very constrained on three sides.
users have been at the heart of the process throughout. This co-design process was led through a number of workshops with clinical planners, architects, and the Trust’s Chief Medical Officer, to ensure that service-user needs and experiences were captured, to truly shape the design and functionality of the new hospital building. The process encouraged face-to-face dialogue
between all parties, allowing everyone to understand the needs and challenges first-hand.
A ‘hotel-type’ specification Highgate East has been designed through a co-creation process that has included service-users, clinical staff, and the Trust’s FM provider. This is not a traditional NHS build, but rather a one-of-a-kind facility with a hotel-type specification, and features 78 en-suite rooms, a gym, and a café. The Trust’s clinical strategy reflects a holistic approach to promoting health and wellbeing by considering mind, body, family, friends, community, and environment. This major estate redevelopment programme supports the delivery of its clinical strategy. One in four of us will have a mental health problem at some point, and 97% of users are seen in their community. Highgate East will be able to support a higher severity of illness. The building design has been
influenced by a wide-ranging team, including occupational therapists, nurses, security personnel, the Operations and Maintenance team, and service-users. In addition to 20 co-design workshops,
A sense of a vertical landscape led to an active frontage design so that the building will be more welcoming for the community.
THE NETWORK | MAY 2023
in 2019 the Medical director visited over 50 service-user groups, having face-to-face conversations with more than 500 people in the community, to share the latest ideas,
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Courtesy of Ryder Architecture
Courtesy of Ryder Architecture
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