Trust announces £2million staff investment for new care building

Norfolk and Waveney Mental Health Foundation Trust is set to boost the local economy with a £2millon pound investment, as it recruits some 60 staff for its new psychiatric intensive care and low secure units.

The recruitment drive will start with a Recruitment Open Day at Hellesdon Hospital on 10 October (World Mental Health Day 2008). Staff will be in post by February 2009 for training and induction prior to the new building’s opening in May 2009.

The £8.2million purpose built unit will be Norfolk’s only NHS provided psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU) and the Trust’s second low secure unit (LSU). Currently those needing PICU placements receive their treatment outside Norfolk, but with the new building on the Hellesdon Hospital site on the outskirts of Norwich, patients will be able to receive care locally.

The facility will provide ten PICU beds and 12 low secure beds. The low secure unit will work in tandem with the Yare Ward low secure unit, which opened in January 2007, to bring the total number of beds for this important treatment to 27.

Maggie Wheeler, chair of the Trust, said: “Building work is progressing really well on our new PICU and low secure units. Our staff, service users and visitors have all been watching the building work progress with interest. We now need to focus on recruiting care staff to work in this modern new building.

“When the facility is opened in the spring next year, it will be of real benefit to the people in Norfolk and Waveney who need this level of care and will no longer have to travel out of the county for treatment. The extra jobs will of course also boost the local economy in this time of financial worry for many.”

The unit will not only improve care for patients in a purpose built state-of-the-art facility will also deliver savings in terms of a more efficient service.