Published on: 2nd October 2023
Update 1 November 2023
Unfortunately, due to water quality issues identified on the ward during routine testing, our planned reopening in November 2023 has been postponed until the New Year. This will allow us to undertake essential estates work to address concerns, before it is safe to reopen the ward for residential use.
We are very disappointed to have been affected by this issue, which has been out of our control, but will look to resolve as soon as possible.
We will continue to work with any males and their families currently placed in PICU settings outside of Lincolnshire to move them back to Lincolnshire as soon as possible and will keep the issue under constant review. If further restesting identifies the water quality issues have been resolved before this, we will look to reopen the ward sooner.
Original update
Following the temporary closure of the Hartsholme Centre, Lincolnshire’s male psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU) in October 2022, we are pleased to update that we are on track to reopen the ward with four beds from the end of November 2023.
We took the difficult decision to temporarily close the ward at the end of last year, due to escalating concerns about staffing levels across all our adult mental health wards and to ensure the immediate safety of patients and staff.
With the positive improvement in recruitment we feel we are now in a position to start reopening the ward. This will be closely monitored to ensure it does not have a detrimental impact on the other wards.
Following feedback in our engagement sessions during the ward closure, we are also starting a conversation about potential options to introduce a female PICU service in the county - something not curently offered in the county.
We are undertaking a number of engagement workshops during October/early November to discuss what options there may be.
Please feel free to join us for these initial conversations.
Public engagement events
| Monday 23 October | 2pm-4pm | The Boardroom, Saxon Court, St George’s Site, Long Leys Road, LINCOLN, LN1 1FS |
| Tuesday 24 October | 10am-12noon | Jubilee Church Life Centre, 5 London Road, GRANTHAM, NG31 6EY |
| Thursday 26 October | 10am-11.30am | Virtual event. Use this link to join the meeting on the day |
| Wednesday 8 November | 10am-12pm | The Storehouse, North Parade, SKEGNESS, PE25 1BY |
| Thursday 9 November | 2pm-4pm | The Len Medlock Centre, St Georges Road, BOSTON, PE218YB |
We ask that anyone interested in attending contact our Involvement Team to confirm, however we are also happy for people to turn up on the day.
Contact lpft.involvement@nhs.net or call 07773 206341.
We look forward to shortly reopening the Hartsholme Centre in Lincoln and continuing our conversations with you about future female care.
