Children's mental health unit closing temporarily

The unit has capacity for up to 16 young people aged 12 to 18

The "difficult decision" to temporarily close a children's mental health unit in Sussex has been officially confirmed by the NHS trust which runs the facility.

Chalkhill Hospital, an inpatient unit on the grounds of the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, caters for those aged 12-18 with acute mental health needs.

Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the 16-bed facility, cites "a number of reasons" for the closure which it decided upon internally last month.

A spokesperson said: "It relates to feedback from the CQC, as well as the need to undertake environmental improvements and recruit to the senior clinical role on the ward."

The trust said: "We have also taken the decision to give us time to work with children, young people and families to review and improve the model of care we provide at Chalkhill.

"It is the right time to do this given we recently launched a new Crisis and Intensive Home Treatment Service to prevent the need for hospital admission where possible."

The CQC, whose report from a recent inspection of the unit is yet to be published, said it did not wish to comment.

While appearing before the East Sussex County Council health overview and scrutiny committee last month, trust chief operating officer John Child said the intention was to close "over three months".

He said: "We wanted to make sure that the young people who are currently receiving in-person care, their care was not going to be disrupted, and we would support them to leave hospital in the normal way, rather than be transferred to another in-patient service."

Mr Child said positive steps had been taken since a CQC inspection in 2023 which rated the facility as 'requires improvement', including increasing the number of young people receiving care and the timeliness of admissions.

He said there were a number of reasons for the closure, but "primarily" there was concern about an inability to sustain the necessary improvements.

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