Derbyshire: New mental health hospitals to open within year

The hospitals are part of a wide ranging overhaul of mental health facilities

Two new mental health hospitals in Derbyshire are now expected to open later this year.

The Carsington Unit at Kingsway in Derby and the Derwent Unit in Chesterfield are part of a £150m mental health care programme.

The Derby unit will only be for male patients but the Chesterfield facility will cater for both men and women.

It is hoped the 54-bed inpatient hospitals will improve safety, privacy and dignity for psychiatric patients.

Derbyshire currently has one of the country's highest number of mental health dormitories

Construction work on both hospitals is well under way and, along with additional services, will help create more than 200 jobs with vacancies for mental health nurses, occupational therapists, and other allied health professionals, as well as other clinical and non-clinical roles, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

A plan to refurbish Audrey House, at Kingsway, Derby, to provide a new eight-bed enhanced care unit for women is also due to open later this year.

Work is also progressing to refurbish two 17-bed mental health wards for female patients at the Radbourne Unit based at Derby Royal Hospital. The services currently offered there to male patients will transfer to the new Carsington Unit on opening.

Additionally, a new Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) for 14 men on the Kingsway site is also in the pipeline and could be completed later this year. This will be known as Kingfisher House.

Mark Powell, chief executive of Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, which will operate the new buildings, said: "The input we've received from service users and carers has been invaluable in helping to create facilities which will truly meet the needs of those using the services.

"With single, en-suite bedrooms, patients will have privacy, dignity and maximum control over their environment, giving them the best opportunity to rest and heal."