Relocation of St Andrews ward to Yeovil

We're moving!

After years of planning, we are pleased to confirm that final preparations are now taking place to ensure that the new adult mental health inpatient ward in Yeovil is ready to welcome the very first patients, who will be moving from the current stand-alone ward at St Andrews in Wells on 23 July 2024.

The new ward will provide fifteen in-patient beds, supported by an experienced mental health team that will care for people with acute mental health needs and will enable us to provide safer care to people who need this level of mental health support. It will be adjacent to a second inpatient mental health ward, that has also been extensively refurbished.

The new ward is one of four adult inpatient wards in Somerset. Once the new ward has opened, there will be two located in Yeovil, and two in Taunton.

Background

Inpatient mental health wards care for those who need the most mental health support. It is important that these wards are configured to enable good, safe care, but it is also equally important that support is available in communities for those who need less intensive support.

For a number of years, the Open Mental Health alliance in Somerset, of which we are part, has expanded the range of mental health support that is available in Somerset. Open Mental Health provides 24/7 community-based mental health support to adults in Somerset and services include holistic wellbeing workers; 1 to 1 and group support; psychologists; mental health nurses; peer support; occupational therapists; money, benefits and housing support; older and young people specialists; eating disorder specialists; and developmental trauma specialists. The focus is to support people as close to home as possible, in their communities, through a range of local services.

The decision to relocate the stand-alone inpatient mental health ward from Wells to Yeovil was made by the NHS in Somerset after a public consultation in early 2020. The NHS took the decision to move the stand-alone ward to address the challenges it faced caused by the long distance to an Emergency Department when patients need emergency physical healthcare support, the availability of additional staff to provide support in an emergency, and out of hours medical cover.

Open sessions and more information

Before the official opening of the ward, local families, patients, carers and healthcare partners are being invited to visit the new ward and to see the facilities.

Additional information will be published on the website over the next few weeks that will include updated patient information, photos and a video from the ward as part of the opening.