UK – Harplands Hospital

Citation

(2005), "UK – Harplands Hospital", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 18 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2005.06218cab.003

UK – Harplands Hospital

Health chiefs explain how they aim to break the mould and become one of the first mental health trusts to achieve foundation status

Keywords: Mental health services, Performance management, United Kingdom

Each afternoon school children criss-cross the grounds of Harplands Hospital in North Staffordshire on their way home. The act may not seem that important at first sight.

But what makes this truly remarkable is that the stylish £25m PFI centre in Stoke is actually a mental health hospital. Just a decade ago it would have been unheard of for children to even enter the grounds of such a facility.

Hospital bosses believe it is a sign of how the community is now prepared to deal with mental health and could lead to North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare Trust becoming one of the first mental health trusts to be granted foundation status.

The hospital, sandwiched in between two schools, replaced a Victorian asylum situated ten miles away in a small rural community three years ago.

North Staffordshire medical director Dr Roger Bloor said the trust purposely cited the hospital in a residential area to show the local community that mental health was not something that needed to be hidden away. “Nothing has done more to de-stigmatise mental health than the opening of the hospital.”

Only the top performing NHS trusts are entitled to apply for foundation status. Foundation trusts have more freedom to set their own priorities and decide how best to spend their money. They are also allowed to borrow money and keep the proceeds of sales. To date, 25 trusts have been granted foundation status and another 42 are applying.

There was some opposition at first but after much consultation and engagement that changed and with the preliminary bid for foundation status already submitted, North Staffordshire Chief Executive Dr Chris Buttanshaw believes the community could now take an even bigger step.

He said foundation status offered the public the opportunity to roll back the years and embrace the health service in a way not seen since the NHS was formed after the Second World War. “Before the NHS was set up, health services used to be run on a local level on a voluntary basis. But once the taxpayers took on the responsibility it cut off that community spirit.”

Dr Buttanshaw, who has worked for the trust for the past decade, becoming Chief Executive three years ago, said the public have two roles in the foundation world. “There is the trust board level to oversee what we do but it is also about whether the whole community wants to take an interest in caring for people with great difficulties.”

For further information, www.connects.org.uk