The £7.3 million work at St Saviour’s Hospital, which was previously delayed due to the pandemic, includes extensions and internal remodelling to create 26 en-suite bedrooms, a place of safety on the ground floor, plus eight ‘overspill’ bedrooms and a tribunal suite and training facility on the first floor.
When completed the new facility will replace Orchard House, which was refurbished following a highly critical report last year. It also failed a health and safety inspection.
During a recent hearing of the Health and Social Security Scrutiny Panel, Isabel Watson, associate director of adult mental health and social care, said that the work was well under way but was six weeks behind schedule and currently due to finish in April 2022.
Meanwhile, a project to improve facilities at Aviemore, which is being used to provide respite care for children with special needs, was ongoing while suitable alternative accommodation for the one resident currently there permanently is found, she said.
