Thornton Ward at the Bradgate Mental Health Unit in Leicester is the latest ward to be converted to single room accommodation, enhancing privacy and creating a therapeutic environment for patients as part of a £9m mental health inpatients refurbishment programme by Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT).
The refurbishment programme is fulfilling LPT’s commitment to eliminating dormitory accommodation on all mental health wards for improved patient privacy and dignity. This is the third ward to be refurbished this year, converting wards where patients were previously accommodated in units of four.
Since the main wards were built in the 1980s, national standards have come into force that require all mental health inpatient wards to have individual ensuite rooms to ensure patients have privacy and dignity, and to better aid their recovery.
The Trust is committed to ensuring all of their wards are converted from dormitory style accommodation to single rooms for an improved patient experience.
The 12 new single rooms on Thornton Ward will allow patients to have more privacy and dignity, as well as increased storage for personal belongings. Shared spaces have been revamped too to create a more relaxing environment.
The new and improved ward can be seen in this short video:
Vikash Chooramun, deputy ward manager said: “Feedback from patients has been really positive, and we believe this is an important way forward to improve the standard of care our patients receive.”
Patients have previously said: “It is ten times better – more privacy.”, “Excellent, peaceful and private” and “Own room, 10/10 brilliant.”
Dr Avinash Hiremath, LPT’s Medical Director said: “We are committed to eliminating dormitory and shared sleeping accommodation to give better privacy and dignity to our patients. Whilst our regulators, the CQC, saw significant improvements in our services during their inspection earlier this year, they remain concerned, as do we, about aspects of our Mental Health estate and in particular our dormitory accommodation. We have had a robust capital programme in place since 2019 to address this. This remains a significant priority – and whilst it was affected by the Covid pandemic; we are continuing to implement our schedule.. We have been successful in gaining national funding to eliminate dormitory accommodation; two wards have been completed over the summer and this third ward reflects our rolling programme to complete the work at the remaining mental health wards.”