Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust (C&I) has appointed BAM Construction to build its new £70 m mental health inpatient facility in Highgate.
Construction of the new building, opposite the Trust’s existing Highgate Mental Health Centre, is due to begin later this year, following planning permission approval, and is expected to be completed in summer 2022.
The new, purpose-built facility, with five wards, a gym, dedicated activity spaces, and a community café, will replace the mental health inpatient wards at St Pancras Hospital which the Trust says are ‘ageing and no longer fit-for-purpose’.
Trust CEO, Angela McNab, said: “This appointment marks another exciting milestone in our plans to deliver a brand new inpatient mental health facility for people in Camden and Islington. During the past 12 months the Trust has worked closely with service-users, carers, staff, and architects to co-design the new facility. This has involved listening to their ideas, suggestions and experience of using existing inpatient services, with the feedback received helping to shape the design of the new building.”
The Trust’s St Pancras Transformation Programme director, Malcolm McFrederick, said: “Our aim is to develop a modern, therapeutic facility that supports wellbeing and recovery, and enables staff to provide the best possible care. We are delighted that a contractor has now been appointed to turn year-long co-production discussions, into a reality”.
Trust Project director, Akin Durowoju, who is leading the new build, said: “In appointing a contractor we considered not only its experience in mental health facility design and construction, but also how key responsibilities, such as those to the environment and local communities, are met. We are confident that BAM Construction will deliver on all of those things.”
Gavin Pantlin, Construction director for BAM, said: “Our experience, combined with a highly modern and sophisticated approach is what the healthcare sector demands, because of the range of sensitive environments that patients and medical professionals experience.
We are eager to develop the strong relationship we have started to forge with the Trust and its partners so that many good things can develop from it, for the Trust, for its patients, and for the people who live and work in the area.”
BAM is behind more than 100 health schemes in London alone. It was appointed following a competitive process under the ProCure22 framework.