VIDEO - £15m revamp as Newton Lodge is rebuilt 30 years on

The district’s mental health trust has carried out a £15m revamp of the 100-bed medium secure unit at Wakefield’s Fieldhead Hospital.

A video by South West Yorkshire NHS Partnership Foundation Trust shows the results of the three-year project, which includes a £4.8m activity centre with sports hall, art room, workshops and a music room at Newton Lodge.

Four wards have been refurbished with en-suite facilities and improved space to provide therapy at the unit, which treats mental health patients from around Yorkshire and Humber.

Dr Adrian Berry, the trust’s medical director, said: “We have invested heavily to develop, improve and extend our facilities.

“This has been a huge project involving work on almost all original parts of the unit that were first built in 1984 and now brought right up to date.

“Newton Lodge is now unrecognisable compared to how it was three years ago.”

Building work was carried out by Interserve Construction and the Ouchthorpe Lane project was funded from the trust’s own capital budget.

Dr Berry said the new facilities meant patients meant patients could be helped to recover more quickly.

He added: “As a result, we’ve seen a reduction in the length of stay, particularly amongst people who, in the past, would have stayed here for quite a long time.

“We now have a truly 21st century facility ideal for modern mental health care.”