"If I had to be back in hospital this is what I would like"

November 28, 2007
by Angela Hussain

A new “revolutionary” mental health hospital where all its rooms are en-suite has opened.

Managers of the £19m Gartnavel Royal Hospital in Glasgow say it will transform inpatient psychiatric care with its modern and innovative design.

All of the hospital's 177 rooms are en-suite. There is a community café, patient gym, an on-site advocacy service, a multi-faith facility and a family room.

The hospital is described as "light and spacious", and patients and staff were involved in the design of the building

Moira Gillespie, a former service user and chair of the mental health network for Greater Glasgow, applauded the privacy provided by the new hospital.

"If I had to be back in hospital this is what I would like,” she said.

"This doesn't compare to my previous experience, in an ordinary psychiatric hospital.

"The fact service users have had input from the beginning in this hospital is vitally important."

Shona Neil, chief executive of the Scottish Association of Mental Health, said: “The knowledge that treatment is available in such an environment might encourage people to seek help earlier than they do currently given the poor environments many hospitals still have to offer.”

"Hopefully staff will also feel the benefit of working in such a setting and this will have a beneficial impact on everyone."

Anne Hawkins, director of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s Mental Health Partnership, said: "“Many people have outdated views about mental health hospitals and still think of them as large, gloomy institutions. This new hospital will challenge these misconceptions and prove mental health hospitals can be bright, attractive and welcoming."

Key features of Gartnavel Royal Hospital:
* All en-suite single rooms with shower and toilets.
* Community Café for patients, staff and public. It is designed to “break down barriers”, by giving people who would not normally visit a mental health hospital, a chance to mix with patients and staff.
* "Innovative" design and layout: The hospital is “light, airy and spacious”
* 'Hub and spoke’ model. All administrative, therapy and counselling services are in a two-storey central ‘hub’, with single storey adult and elderly wards extending in ‘spokes’ from either side. There are six separate wards - three adult wards, two elderly wards and one intensive psychiatric care unit.
* Modern clinical and therapeutic areas: Including a patient gym, therapy kitchen, facilities for group and individual therapy, on-site advocacy service, multi faith facility (where service users can have quiet reflective time) and a family friendly room for service users with children.

* View more images of Gartnavel Royal Hospital (Java needed)

Read more: Wards

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Looks like a prison

Comment from: David Bowker, retired psychiatrist, Stockport,
Date: December 12, 2007

Looks like a modern high tech prison - particularly from the desolate reception area leading to a series of small windowed solid doors.

Hub and spoke system is, of course, a classic design from prisons - but has advantages if properly designed in helping observation of the units.

Single rooms are a good idea but pose obvious
dangers without very careful thought and adequate staffing.

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Nothing 'revolutionary'

Comment from: William Bates, consultant psychiatrist, London
Date: June 25, 2008

Nothing revolutionary I can see about this building. Granted it looks bright and modern but it also looks typically institutional and frankly rather cheap. Just another example of mundane NHS/PFI commissioned architecture I suspect.

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