New mental care facilities shown

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Staff and patients of mental health services in Cardiff are being offered the chance to walk around full-scale models of planned new care facilities.

Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust is proposing to build a £68m in-patient unit at Whitchurch Hospital, featuring single rooms with en-suite facilities.

It also wants to develop a £50m assessment unit for older people at its Llandough Hospital site.

Work is expected to begin in the summer if approved by the assembly government.

The NHS hospital trust said it hoped the mock-ups would drive home the contrast between the current rooms at the 100-year-old Whichurch building and the new proposed single en suite rooms.

Stephen Harries, director of development said: "Opportunities will be given to any service user and members of staff to not just view but also to walk around the proposed rooms and seeing them exactly how they would look, right down to the actual fittings.

From open dormitory wards to ensuite private rooms; Maddy Reid explains that new hospital layout will help patients recover

"Vitally, this will allow informed feedback prior to finalising the detailed design plans.

One of the first service users to take up the tour was Maddy Reid, 39, who has been treated at Whitchurch for depression.

She said: "On my first admission, back in 1992, it was on a ward where there were were still dormitories with just a curtain, like a general ward today.

"So the only way for females to get to their dormitory and their beds was to walk through a very dimly lit male dormitory.

"So to have every single bedroom with en-suite facilities is going to be remarkable.

"I think patients are going to feel safe, not just women but men as well.

"This is a great big step to overcoming some of those problems and anxieties that people have when they have to leave their home and come into hospital." All rooms at the proposed inpatient unit would be en-suite

Clinical Nurse Leader Simone Jocelyn has been helping to design the new unit.

She said staff feel it is unfair that vulnerable patients are housed in unfit buildings.

She said: "If you look at the plans for the new build, and how much emphasis has been put on our service users' privacy, their dignity, and particularly their safety, then that should make all of the difference."

The Whitchurch Hospital facility is expected to be ready for patients by 2011, if it is approved.

The trust's mental health services manager, Garry Ricks, said he was confident the unit would be ready on time and on budget.

He said: "We've developed community services and the majority of patients are now treated in the community and in their own homes.

"But sometimes people do need to come into hospital, so this is really an important part of having a modern service, where people's needs can be met appropriately, in an in-patient facility.

"We've been planning a long time for this and we're confident we can deliver it within budget."