AN application has been submitted to build Dorset’s first psychiatric intensive care unit specifically for children and young people.
Dorset HealthCare NHS Trust has submitted an application to expand the child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) at its Alumhurst Road site in Bournemouth.
Their plans outline the introduction of a new Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) for 12–18-year-olds who are seriously unwell.
If approved, it will be the first unit of its kind to be built in Dorset, giving young people the option for local care and keeping them closer to their families and loved ones.
A design and access statement submitted to BCP Council said: “There is a recognised shortage of CAMHS PICU beds in the south of the country. This means young people from Dorset are being sent out of the area for care – on average 91 miles away from home.
“Because of this, recovery takes longer and costs the NHS more than it needs to. By creating the PICU, the aim is to reduce waiting times for admissions or transfer from eight to six weeks, and patient recovery time reduced from 103 to 75 days by 2025, for young people in Dorset and the surrounding area.”
If approved, the facility would be built on the eastern end of the Alumhurst Road site, seeing existing facilities Nightingale Court and Seastone House demolished, and their services relocated.
Read more: Plans shared for Bournemouth psychiatric intensive care unit
According to plans submitted to the council, the new building would include seven standard inpatient en-suite bedrooms, one accessible inpatient en-suite bedroom, a seclusion room, de-escalation room, and an extra-care suite, as well as a two-classroom school facility and a tribunal room.
The proposals for the Alumhurst Road site were shared with the public at an exhibition on September 5.
Read more: New Bournemouth psychiatric care unit plans to go on display
They were then submitted to the council in October by Medical Architecture, on behalf of Dorset HealthCare NHS Trust.
If all is approved, construction could begin in January 2024, with the unit ready for autumn of 2025.
The Alumhurst Road project is part of the Government’s New Hospitals Programme, which has allocated £67 million to Dorset HealthCare for two new mental health building schemes.
The second scheme is for a new adult inpatient facility at St Ann’s Hospital in Poole. Draft proposals for this will be put before neighbouring residents in November, followed by a full planning application later this year.
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