HOSPITAL REDEVELOPMENT
A sense of community at new Northgate Hospital
In November last year, construction started on the £60 m redevelopment of the medium secure service provision at Northgate Hospital in Morpeth, Northumberland. As Paul Yeomans, director at scheme architects, Medical Architecture, reports, this represented a significant milestone in the delivery of this important new mental health facility for the North East of England.
Formed around the concept of a ‘village campus’, the new medium secure hospital at the heart of the development provides a wide variety of indoor and outdoor settings for relaxation and activity, relieving boredom, and promoting recovery. Set against a backdrop of increased investment in mental health services across the country, this project provides a blueprint for facility design which supports the mental and physical wellbeing of patients and staff.
We were commissioned to masterplan and design the hospital scheme by NTW Solutions Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, one of the largest mental health and learning disability NHS Trusts in the UK. The Trust provides local services to 1.4 million people over an area of 2,200 square miles, in addition to specialist services to a wider regional and national population. The project is one of its key strategic priorities, forming part of the £72.6 million Care Environment Development and Re-provision programme (CEDAR). We have a long-standing partnership with the Trust, having worked with it since 2003 in the development of the medium secure Bamburgh Clinic in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, and, since then to the present date, replacing or upgrading the majority of the Trust’s built estate. The scope of the CEDAR programme
A rendered image showing the ‘quality of landscape’ – an essential component of the development.
is focused on the re-provision of new adult acute mental healthcare, and older people’s organic and functional care facilities, and the re-provision of new adult and adolescent medium secure inpatient facilities. The programme is intrinsically linked with wider care model developments and national reviews, including New Care Models for Adult Secure Services, and the NHS England National Adolescent Medium Secure Unit (MSU) review.
The consolidation of services Forming the largest part of the redevelopment, the new medium secure hospital at Northgate Hospital is the
catalyst to allow secure services across the Trust to be brought together from currently dispersed sites, consolidated in an integrated secure centre of excellence. In total, the CEDAR programme will provide 116 male inpatient beds, located in a combination of new and reconfigured existing buildings, including
reconfiguration of the Bamburgh Clinic. The new-build element will provide inpatient accommodation for 74 male patients with a range of forensic mental health needs, including patients with complex personality disorders and/or learning disabilities.
The front reception building itself provides a secure boundary to a large section of the internal plan, reducing the need for high fencing, particularly in the areas visible from the main approach routes.
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A unique woodland setting The existing hospital is set within a large open campus, containing a mix of buildings and facilities. We have designed the redevelopment to bring greater unity to the site, and present an integrated mix of facilities. Much of the eastern part of the site is covered by a broad area of mature woodland, which is owned and managed by the Trust. Initial proposals were to develop the northern part of the site, while allocating the southern section for housing development. Early feasibility work showed that it would be more advantageous to develop the latter for the new hospital. A range of factors were considered, from the reduction in construction cost and delivery time, to the quality of the surrounding woodland environment – which would provide opportunities to
OCTOBER 2021 | THE NETWORK
©Medical Architecture
©Medical Architecture
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