A new dawn for mental health inpatient care in Oxfordshire

A CGI image showing a view of the proposed new hospital from the meadow (Cityscape Digital for Eric Parry Architects)

Last year, we sought views from the public on our plans to transform the Warneford Hospital site into a major mental health campus, with a brand-new mental health hospital at its heart.

Fast forward a year, and we have now submitted detailed plans to Oxford City Council for their consideration.

There is a lot of excitement about our plans among staff providing mental health care at Warneford Hospital, those who have lived experience of receiving mental health inpatient care at the hospital, as well as the academics and researchers seeking to improve care and treatments, and for good reason.

What we plan to achieve with a new hospital will have an enormously positive impact on the quality of mental health care we can provide and significantly improve the experience of that care for people living in Oxfordshire – whether that be through its actual delivery or the environment in which it is received. It will also help us as we continue to discover new and important treatments and therapies that can help people up and down the country.

As a Registered Mental Nurse, with over 30 years’ experience of working for Oxford Health, our plan for a new mental health hospital is something that is very close to my heart.

Staff work incredibly hard to provide modern mental health care services, but it is not easy in a 200-year-old hospital building. We strive to provide patients with the best care possible, and so it is frustrating when we know that we are constrained by outdated facilities, and environments that are not conducive to recovery.

When people experience serious mental illness and distress and require inpatient care, they deserve a calm, supportive and safe environment to promote their recovery and improve their outcomes. We know that treatments are more effective if they are delivered within environments that focus on maximising natural light, integrating nature, providing opportunities for privacy, personal control (for example over room lighting and temperature), and reducing environmental stressors like noise.

The feedback we receive about Warneford Hospital from staff, patients and their loved ones, as well as health regulators, is quite compelling. They point to the same issues: the noise of the wards, the poor space for patients to engage in therapeutic activity, lack of private rooms with en-suite bathrooms that enhance a sense of dignity, safety, and personal control.

Warneford Hospital is a beautiful historic building with a long history of providing care to people in need. It is rightly protected by its status as a listed building, but it is no longer a suitable environment in which to be providing mental health care. The need to protect the integrity of the building means that we cannot make the alterations we would need to make for it to be suitable.

Watch Britta Klinck discussing our vision for the new hospital in a video recorded for the second Warneford Park public consultation (links to YouTube).

Living with mental illness can be extremely challenging for individuals, their families and loved ones. Inpatient treatment is there to support people at their most vulnerable and when they are in crisis and at their most distressed. The inpatient services work alongside community crisis services, and often people come into hospital because they, their families and health professionals do not feel that they are safe to be at home; more often than not they are subject to the Mental Health Act.

It can be an overwhelming and frightening time for everyone involved and it is of the utmost importance that we can provide an environment which is calm, peaceful and supportive. This means providing a space that is safe, where noise and interference is at a minimum, where staff are able to therapeutically interact with patients, where there is an ambient temperature and where patients feel supported to seek social contact, but have the dignity and peace of their own room and environment when needed.

Similarly, it is really important to provide a balance of private quiet rooms and communal areas, allowing individuals to choose their level of social engagement or solitude according to their needs at any given moment.

Patient experience has been at the absolute heart of our plans for this new hospital. We have heard from many people with lived experience – we have heard them recount their experiences here in the Warneford, but also elsewhere, to ensure that we learn from positive as well as negative experiences and design a hospital that not only meet expectations, but exceeds them and in itself provides a place for recovery, healing and hope that the people of Oxfordshire deserve.

In developing our proposals for our new mental health hospital, every aspect of its design has been carefully considered from a patient experience angle, as our clinical lead (nursing) for Warneford Park, Samantha Robinson, explains: Building a new mental health hospital with patient experience at its heart – Warneford Park

Our engagement doesn’t stop now that we have submitted our planning application. If our plans are approved and funding is secured, we will begin to look at the more detailed elements of our designs that will enhance and make significant improvements. We know that by integrating these evidence-based design principles, the new Warneford Hospital can create an environment that actively supports mental health recovery and overall well-being for both patients and staff.