Nottinghamshire Healthcare’s National Learning Disability Unit is finally under construction after 2 year’s of planning.
The new unit, based at Rampton Hospital, Retford, will include 54 beds split into 4 discrete House units with a new dedicated Therapeutic Core and office building. This core building will be the hub of the service with service users attending here for daytime activities such as exercise in the multi-gym and music therapy in the dedicated music room.
To mark the start of the building works for this nationally important unit, staff from the Trust gathered with contractors, Laing O’Rourke, for a photo opportunity and to see the beginning of the demolition of the old East Villa site.
Angela Close, General Manager of Learning Disability Services, said; “It is welcoming to see the start of the building works after a lengthy period of design, consultation processes and business planning. The Learning Disability Team are looking forward to working with our Supply Chain Partners over the next two years to deliver a much needed building in which to deliver high quality cost effective Learning Disability services to patients who require conditions of high security”.
This £35m building programme will take around 2 years to complete and will provide a modern, flexible and high quality environment for our patients. The project has a nationally important strategic contribution to the care and wellbeing of patients with a learning disability requiring psychiatric care in a high secure setting.
The Trust’s Capital Planning Unit project team are leading and managing delivery of the project with our partner Laing O’Rourke to ensure that the new unit meets the needs of the clinical services for our learning disability patients.
The construction of the unit will be complete early 2010 allowing the Trust to have the unit for commissioning in March 2010.
