RECENT NEWS

NHS Property Services (NHSPS) has launched a ‘vacant space handback scheme’ to help NHS commissioners cut the cost of empty space in their buildings.

In a recently published Care Quality Commission report following a comprehensive threeyear inspection of all specialist mental health services in England – rating services provided by 54 NHS Trusts and 221 independent mental health locations – inspectors express concerns about ‘the poor physical environment of many mental health wards’.

Nottinghamshire Healthcare has officially opened a 16-bedded ward for adult mental health patients to ensure they can be treated closer to home, with the beds subcontracted from Priory Healthcare and Partnerships in Care in a two year-deal.

Dorset is now ‘home to one of the leading inpatient mental health services for young people in the country’, says the Dorset Children and Adolescent Mental Health Team (CAMHS), based at Pebble Lodge, Bournemouth, and run by Dorset HealthCare.

A pledge to treat an extra one million mental health patients by 2020/2021, provide ‘seven day-a-week, 24-hour-a-day’ services, and ‘integrate mental and physical health services for the first time’, were the highlights of a new plan unveiled this summer by Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt.

Capital funding has been made available by NHS England for the redesign St Charles’ Health Based Place of Safety to be larger, more comfortable, and more responsive to service users, their families and staff.

Nine new Learning Disability and Mental Health Nurses, who will work across wards at the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch and Worcestershire Royal Hospital, joined Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust on September 25 in a move that the Trust describes as "innovative".

Crittall Holdings has acquired the trade and assets of Fendor – the Washington, Tyne and Wear-based manufacturer of high security, ballistic, and ‘bomb-proof’ fenestration, which also supplies windows used in custodial and mental health institutions and the petrochemical industry.

NTW Solutions (a subsidiary of Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust) has selected Sir Robert McAlpine as its preferred delivery partner for a five-year strategic partnership expected to generate at least £50 m of construction turnover through a range of minor and major capital works.

A sanctuary for people in serious emotional distress in Hull was formally opened in mid-May at an event described as a ‘watershed moment’ for mental health services in Hull and East Riding.

Pensher Skytech has supplied its Skytech Lite window unit for the new 2 Warwick Road eating disorder clinic in High Barnet, North London, which required a specialist antiligature solution that maximised natural light ingress and access to entilation.

Construction of a ‘dementia-friendly’ home designed to help researchers learn about supporting those living with the condition will begin on the BRE Innovation Park at Garston near Watford this Autumn.

Manufacturer of anti-barricade doorsets, vision panels, and hardware for mental healthcare use, the Kingsway Group, says its recently established Design Review Panel (‘DRP’) – comprising individuals with a variety of expertise from clinical, estates and facilities, capital projects, and nursing backgrounds – plays a valuable part by ‘critiquing its designs’ prior to a product’s commercial launch.

Patients, staff, and volunteers, at a secure hospital for people with mental illnesses in Hull have painted a ‘massive mural’ of an American diner on its walls.

A concise but informative evidence-based guide to how elements such as high quality personal space, some control over the environment, suitable therapeutic facilities, access to nature, attractive aesthetics, and good acoustics, can significantly aid recovery in inpatient mental health settings, has been published by the Design in Mental Health Network (DIMHN).

Armitage Shanks has launched two ‘innovative healthcare solutions’ designed to help in the fight against infection in healthcare facilities.

After ‘substantial investment into revolutionary technology’, and design collaboration with its parent company Ulster Carpets, supplier of carpets to the healthcare sector, Danfloor UK, is due to launch two new collections.

Architectural consultancy, Michael Hall Associates, selected Zeta Specialist Lighting’s Ecolux Solar LED trough lighting system, which is ‘entirely powered by solar’, to illuminate a newly designed wayfinding system at Bradford’s Lynfield Mount Hospital.

UK-based engineering design consultancy and DIMHN member, Troup Bywaters + Anders (TB+A), has become only the third construction industry organisation globally to be awarded the Platinum standard by Investors in People (IiP).

A report recently published by NHS England outlining the progress made in the first year of the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health sets out which areas are beginning to see improved access to care, and outlines examples of good local practice.