Inpatient Accommodation


Buildings rise from natural contours


Foundation Trust (HPFT) at Kingsley Green near Radlett. As ’s editor, Jonathan Jonathan Baillie reports, in an article written following a site visit early in 2014 facility’s construction, HPFT’s aim was to incorporate ‘world-class, state-of-the-art facilities’ that will help it achieve its ‘vision’ of becoming England’s best provider of mental healthcare and specialist learning disability services.


Last October saw the completion of a new £42 m adult acute inpatient mental health unit – Kingfisher Court – for Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Trust (HPFT) at Kingsley Green near Radlett. As The Network


unit – Kingfisher Court – for Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation The Network’s editor,


Baillie reports, in an article written following a site visit early in 2014 during the during the facility’s construction, HPFT’s aim was to incorporate ‘world-class, state-of-the-art facilities’ that will help it achieve its ‘vision’ of becoming England’s best provider of mental healthcare and specialist learning disability services.


Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (HPFT) provides mental health and specialist learning disability services across Hertfordshire, and specialist learning disability services in North Essex and Norfolk. Its 2,800 staff care for over 30,000 service- users annually across over 80 locations. In outlining the ‘vision’ for a five-year


‘Transformation Programme’ initiated in 2010, the Trust said its priority was ‘to ensure that our service-users continue to achieve the best recovery they can, with all the latest evidence- based support we can offer’. It is against this backdrop that the HPFT worked, for four years, with construction company, Medicinq Osborne, and P+HS Architects, to plan, design, and build, the 86-bed Kingfisher Court facility on the site of the former Harperbury Hospital in Radlett. Medicinq Osborne had already, I discovered when I visited the site, and met with project director, Mike Trigg, established an excellent working relationship with the Trust when it bid for the contract. In May and September 2009 respectively it successfully completed a new 32-bed inpatient Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and Low Secure unit, known as Oak and Beech, and a 16- bedded Child and Adult Mental Health Services (CAMHS) facility, Forest House, both under ProCure21, about 300 yards from Kingfisher Court on the Kingsley Green site.


INTERESTING TOUR When I visited the site early in 2014, work was still some way from completion, but I was given an interesting tour by Mike Trigg, who showed me the work in progress, and discussed some of the key ambitions for the attractive new development. Also joining us were Jacky Vincent, HPFT’s clinical services manager for Kingfisher Court, and the Trust’s external communications officer, Caroline Jacobi. Before talking specifically about Kingfisher Court, Mike


Trigg touched on Medicinq Osborne’s existing ‘history’ with HPFT at Kingsley Green. He said: “I joined Osborne after we built the


new PICU unit, specifically to work on this new project. We had also concurrently built the CAMHS Unit, a single-storey conversion of an existing bungalow, which incorporates 16 single-bedded en suite rooms, and caters for young people aged 13-16. With these two projects under our belt, we heard about the plans to build the new Adult Acute Mental Health Unit, expressed an interest, were interviewed, and in June 2010 were appointed principal supply chain partner under ProCure21 for what has become Kingfisher Court.


GO-AHEAD DELAYED “In July 2011, we began some 18 months of planning, and drawing up detailed designs. The Trust appointed an architect, P+HS Architects, who were novated to us; the brief was to create


£42 m adult acute inpatient mental health


‘a best-in-class’ 86-bed single-storey adult inpatient mental healthcare facility to ‘blend’ well into the surrounding woodland landscape by following the natural contours. Other key criteria included protecting existing mature trees, and using wooden cladding extensively externally to both maintain a comfortable internal environment, and complement the wooded location. “The structural engineers are London-based


Thomason’s, while Bedford-based landscape architects, the Landscape Partnership, have undertaken all the landscaping. “Once we had finalised the design with the


Trust,” he continued, “and obtained planning approval, we could make plans to start work in January 2013. Before this, however, we demolished the 10 single-storey bungalows occupying the site, which, formerly used for learning disability and mental health service- users, had been derelict since the late 1990s.”


TWO LINKED BLOCKS Mike Trigg explained that the new mental healthcare facility, located on a sloping site, and served by a 174-space car park (plus 10 disabled spaces and two electric car charging bays), would incorporate two ‘blocks’ linked by a covered, stepped, walkway. The part two- storey northern block incorporates the main entrance, two wards, an electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) suite, offices, and tribunal rooms, an energy centre, and accommodation for the estates and facilities management team. On the ground floor, close to the main entrance, is a sizeable café within its own courtyard, below a


The northern block and main entrance, with its copper panelling. The exterior here combines timber cladding and zinc panels. Structurally insulated timber panels were used extensively, being favoured for their considerable time-saving benefits.


THE NETWORK January 2015 15


Courtesy of P+HS Architects/David Churchill


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