A new £25m mental health hospital has officially opened in Walton, Liverpool.
Beatrice Fraenkel, chairman of Mersey Care NHS Trust, which will operate the facility; and chief executive, Joe Rafferty, attended a special ceremony to mark the launch of Clock View Hospital.
It took two years to build and will provide short-term inpatient care for local people in a modern, therapeutic environment.
Located on the site of the former Walton Hospital, it will treat adults with a range of common mental illnesses including depression and anxiety, as well as provide the city’s only psychiatric intensive care unit for people who need more-intensive short-term treatment and assessment.
The hospital marks a revolution in the design of mental health facilities. Unlike older units using traditional buildings, the purpose-built centre will feature 80 single rooms with en-suite bathrooms, all constructed to maximise natural light.
As well as bedrooms, there will be activity areas and safe inner courtyard gardens. The building will also boast learning and education spaces; a café; a range of individual and group therapy/activity spaces; space for self-help, advocacy and voluntary organisations; spiritual space; family visiting rooms; a gymnasium, sporting facilities; and assessment and office accommodation for community teams.
Rafferty said: “People in Merseyside deserve the very best mental health services in the country and we are proud that Clock View makes a bold statement that second-rate facilities are simply just not good enough.”
Mersey Care worked with Liverpool Sefton Health Partnership Limited (LSHP) to deliver the project, which was commissioned as part of the NHS LIFT framework.