Work starts on new £70m Dorset mental health units

Staff from Dorset HealthCare were joined by Lord Markham, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Care (left), to formally get development work under way

The construction of two new mental health facilities is a "major step forward", a health executive has said.

Work has begun on an eight-bed psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU) for children and young people on Alumhurst Road, Bournemouth.

A replacement adult PICU is also being built at St Ann's Hospital in Poole.

Matthew Bryant from Dorset HealthCare said the units would allow seriously ill local people to be cared for close to their friends and family.

Young people currently face being sent for specialist treatment hundreds of miles away, Dorset HealthCare said.

Under plans to improve accommodation at the Poole facility, adult patients would each have their own rooms.

The hospital would also house a new "place of safety" suite for patients detained under the Mental Health Act.

Construction would cost more than £70m, with patient care in place by 2026.

Funding for the facilities has been given to Dorset HealthCare as part of the government's New Hospitals Programme.

Mr Bryant said he was delighted both projects were under way, adding the facilities would greatly reduce the need for out-of-area placements and would improve people's chances of recovery.

Full construction will start in early 2024.

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