The new Sycamore Unit at Northgate Park Hospital has been officially opened by Her Grace Jane Percy, The Duchess of Northumberland. The unit has been delivered by the NTW Solutions Capital Team for Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW).

Sycamore is a new, state-of-the-art secure facility which looks after men with a mental illness, learning disability or personality disorder and who have come into contact with the criminal justice system. It is a major new facility for CNTW which contains 72 beds across six wards.

The new unit is one element of a wider scheme to which aims to improve the safety and quality of care for patients who require a stay in hospital with CNTW, a provider of mental health and disability services.

Following extensive planning and design stages work began on the unit in November 2020, and the successful opening of the unit is the result of the hard work and dedication of hundreds of staff, many of whom attended the official opening. That included staff from NTW Solutions, CNTW, building contractors Sir Robert McAlpine, as well as other invitees such as local healthcare organisations and charities, and local MPs.

The unit has been carefully designed to the highest standards, equipped with cutting-edge technology and a variety of spaces to ensure that patients receive the best possible care. These purpose-built spaces including an education suite, art rooms, sport and exercise facilities, a workshop for woodwork, and gardens.

Now Sycamore has been handed over the Capital Team are working on schemes at Carleton Clinic in Cumbria, at Ferndene in Prudhoe, and St Nicholas Hospital in Newcastle.