Care system Public NHS Emergency department N/A Date founded 1972 | Hospital type Specialist Phone +44 1924 327000 Number of beds 208 | |
Location Wakefield, West Yorkshire, Yorkshire and the Humber, England, United Kingdom Speciality Psychiatric and Learning Disability Hospital Website www.southwestyorkshire.nhs.uk Address Ouchthorpe Ln, Wakefield WF1 3SP, UK Affiliated university University of Huddersfield | ||
Fieldhead Hospital is a psychiatric and learning disability hospital in Wakefield, United Kingdom. It is operated by South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and was formerly operated by Wakefield and Pontefract Community Health Trust prior to the current Trust being formed in 2002.
Contents
History
The hospital was opened on the 11th July 1972 by HRH Princess Alexandra and was operated by the Wakefield Hospital Management Committee. The hospital replaced older hospitals such as Oulton Hall, Hatfield Hall and Cardigan Hospital with a full range of facilities for patients with learning difficulties (referred to as 'mentally handicapped' at the time of opening) and cost around £2 million to construct.
Facilities included:
Each building, or 'villa', was designed for a category of resident i.e. children, adolescents, adults, geriatrics, or severely disabled and many were linked in pairs in order to have shared dining accommodation and day rooms. Residents who were bed-bound would be able to have sight of the activities taking part in the day rooms and each villa had a hobbies room along with baths, showers, changing and drying facilities and treatment rooms. Each villa had an internal courtyard with seating and on the west and southern aspects, a terraced area could be found.
The social centre, found at the end of a centrally located spine corridor which linked the admission and assessment units, children's unit and administration offices. The social centre contained facilities for the following:
The villas were given names after local areas:
Developments in the late 20th century
In 1981, a regional secure unit (now known as medium secure units) was built in the north east of the hospital site for patients suffering from mental illness who could not be looked after in prisons and this was called Newton Lodge. After the closure of Stanley Royd Hospital in 1995, pyschiatric care was moved to Fieldhead and the hospital became a psychiatric and learning disability hospital.
The site today
The majority of the hospital buildings have remained the same although the use of the buildings have changed dramatically; the former social centre is now a Learning and Development complex and many of the villas off the central spine corridor are now administration offices and a Trust Headquarters suite which houses the directors for the Trust.
The services and wards at Fieldhead are as follows:
Development of the Fieldhead site
The Trust has invested £16 million of its own capital in redeveloping the non-secure inpatient facilities at Fieldhead and the new facilities will include state of the art therapeutic areas, en-suite bathrooms and vastly improved patient relaxation areas. The development will see the demolition of the Chantry, Trinity and Priory Units to be replaced with a brand new building which will bring all the services offered by the three units under one roof along with the refurbishment of the Newhaven Unit. The development should be complete in 2018.
Mental Health Museum
The Mental Health Museum (previously known as the Stephen Beaumont Museum of Mental Health) is located at the hospital. It contains artefacts and exhibits of the history of the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum which was later known as Stanley Royd Hospital in Wakefield. Artefacts include restraining equipment, a padded cell, photographs, medical and surgical equipment, and documents. There is also a scale model of the original 1818 Stanley Royd Hospital, which was the museum's original location until the hospital closed in 1995.