New milestone for North View development
A major new milestone on the new state-of-the-art £105m adult mental health inpatient unit, North View in Manchester, has been reached with practical completion achieved on Friday 4 October with the building formally handed over to the Trust.
Work is already under way to familiarise and train staff on the use of the building.
The impressive facility, purpose-built by main contractors IHP, the joint venture between VINCI Building and Sir Robert McAlpine, replaces Park House on the North Manchester General Hospital site, and is expected to open its doors to patients next month, providing 150 single bedrooms provided over nine single sex wards, and includes a Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), six Adults of Working Age wards, one Older Adults ward and rehabilitation ward.
The facility will continue to provide assessment and treatment for adults and older people with mental health needs, such as depression, schizophrenia, psychosis and dementia.
The unit has been built to the latest environmental standards and offers a therapeutic, modern environment for patients and workplace for staff, which will promote the integration of physical and mental wellbeing.
Trust Project Director for North View, Marc Reed, said:
“We are absolutely delighted to have reached this important landmark in this exciting and transformative project. This is the culmination of significant investment and several years of hard work by various stakeholders and partners to reach this point.
"We are really looking forward to the building becoming fully operational, which will create new therapeutic environments to support recovery for our service users, and provide optimum conditions for our staff to deliver the highest quality of care.”
Garry Bowker, Regional Managing Director for VINCI Building, said:
“We are delighted to have been involved in delivering North View, which has visibly transformed the working environment for Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Trust staff, towards improving patient treatment and care.”
"Construction of North View also enabled us to create significant employment, training and education opportunities, while enabling us to invest in an on-site community skills centre to support local 16–24-year-olds furthest away from the labour market. This has helped to close the construction skills gap in North Manchester."
Gary Hughes, Region Director, said:
“We believe that the Trust’s ambition to maximise the use of renewable energy, innovative technology and sustainable materials has now been realised through North View. It will play a key part in reducing the GMMH’s reliance on fossil fuels, while supporting delivery towards a ‘Net Zero’ National Health Service.”
