Project: West Park Mental Health Unit

Client: County of Durham & Darlington Priority Services NHS Trust

Value: £16.4m

Contract: PFI

Duration: 70 weeks

Awards:

2006 – Sustainable Communities Awards – Constructing Sustainable Communities

As part of the modernisation of the entire acute mental health provision for adults and older people across Durham and Darlington, several existing facilities were consolidated onto a single location in the West Park development area.

The facility was designed to ensure patients and visitors were provided with a therapeutic and secure environment, and includes 60 acute inpatient rooms including mother and baby rooms, 15 complex needs rooms, 10 intensive care rooms and seven recovery rooms

There are also outpatient and day hospital facilities, a full range of clinical support services and a dining room, coffee lounge, prayer room, a shop and a pharmacy. The facilities are arranged in a series of separate buildings located around a central landscaped courtyard and linked by an attractive, enclosed walkway.

Jo Turnbull, Chairman of County Durham & Darlington Priority Services NHS Trust said: "The people of County Durham and Darlington deserve the very best in healthcare facilities and we now have a hospital that is fit for the 21st century."

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