A new Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) for Sheffield Health & Social Care NHS Foundation Trust (SHSC NHS), Endcliffe, has been officially opened by the Trust’s chair, Professor Alan Walker CBE.
The development, on the former Oakwood site at the Longley Centre, Northern General Hospital, was formed through refurbishment and new build; the design team included CAD21 building services engineers and Arcadis, which led the project. The sloping site ‘provided both a challenge and opportunity to create entrances to both the main hospital and the new PICU, to create separate and defined routes into the building’.
The scheme is light and spacious, with plentiful views to outside. It includes 10 bedrooms, garden spaces, an occupational therapy room, a sensory room, a prayer/quiet room, lounges, an activity room, and staff facilities.
Kevan Taylor, SHSC NHS chief executive, said: “We are delighted to be opening Endcliffe Ward. We have made a significant investment to create an environment to support service-users’ recovery in their home city; they will no longer have to go out of Sheffield for PICU treatment. Carers and family members will be able to maintain contact with service-users more easily, and community services will be able to liaise and engage with them more effectively.”