A sense of community at new Northgate Hospital

As Paul Yeomans, director at scheme architects, Medical Architecture, reports, this represented a significant milestone in the delivery of this important new mental health facility for the North East of England.

Formed around the concept of a ‘village campus’, the new medium secure hospital at the heart of the development provides a wide variety of indoor and outdoor settings for relaxation and activity, relieving boredom, and promoting recovery. Set against a backdrop of increased investment in mental health services across the country, this project provides a blueprint for facility design which supports the mental and physical wellbeing of patients and staff.

We were commissioned to masterplan and design the hospital scheme by NTW Solutions Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, one of the largest mental health and learning disability NHS Trusts in the UK. The Trust provides local services to 1.4 million people over an area of 2,200 square miles, in addition to specialist services to a wider regional and national population. The project is one of its key strategic priorities, forming part of the £72.6 million Care Environment Development and Re-provision programme (CEDAR).