Unused ward converted to high quality PICU

The new PICU has been designed by Nottingham-based Focus Consultants as designer, principal designer, quantity surveyor, and contract administrator, and is being constructed by RG Carter. The 10-bedded male inpatient unit is being built within a former clinical ward at Carholme Court which has largely been unused since 2012, apart from occasionally being used as a decant ward when other facilities on the former St George’s Hospital and other local Trust sites needed improvement, redecorating, or upgrading. Completed in 1973, Carholme Court also houses community mental health, community forensic mental health, and eating disorder teams, while close by, on the same site, are Discovery House, a strikingly designed £15 m mental health rehabilitation inpatient unit which opened in early 2012, has three wards, and caters for adult mental health rehabilitation patients, and Long Leys Court, which houses learning disability community teams.

Meanwhile, Gervas House, formerly the headquarters of the Lincoln and District Mental Health and Community Trust, a stone’s throw away, accommodates corporate and administration staff.

All the facilities are operated by the Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which was established in June 2002 when social care and health services formerly provided by Lincolnshire County Council and Lincolnshire Healthcare NHS Trust were brought together. Today the Foundation Trust provides a variety of mental healthcare services to some 718,800 people across Lincolnshire, as well as child and adolescent mental health services for residents in North East Lincolnshire.