New Portsmouth mental health unit soon to open
By Rachel O’Rourke
An £18.6m health centre, including a dedicated mental health team, is due to open in Portsmouth within the 
next week.
The St Mary's health campus, opening months ahead of schedule, will also include:
- a physiotherapy unit;
- a sexual health services;
- a mid-wife birthing centre;
- a 16-bed intermediate care ward;
- a dedicated speech and language therapy mental health team.
Senior project manager Catherine Webster told BBC News that the campus would be "delivered early", with the new midwife-led maternity centre opening on 8 December.
She said: "We promised it would be completed and operational by the beginning of 2012, it's actually the end of 2011."
The out-patients unit and blood service department have been operational since the summer, with the rest of the services due to open on 12 December.
NHS Portsmouth project director Debbie Tarrant told local reporters: "The work has been completed to an extremely high standard.
"I think when patients and service users go inside, they will feel like they are entering a superb new building, rather than a refurbished one."
Work on redeveloping the worn-out NHS St Mary's centre in Milton began in 2009 after receiving £17.1m from the Department of Health, with NHS Portsmouth putting-up the remaining £1.5m.
