Ashworth Hospital

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Map sources for Ashworth Hospital at grid reference SD397030

Ashworth Hospital is a high-security institution in the town of Maghull, a suburb of Liverpool, Merseyside, England.

Ashworth is one of the three "special" hospitals in England and Wales, along with Rampton and Broadmoor, that exist to work with people who require treatment in conditions of special security due to their "dangerous, violent or criminal propensities". Ashworth was formed from the merger of the old Moss Side Hospital – originally a learning-disability unit once used for the treatment of "shell shock" in World War I – and the vastly more modern and considerably more appropriate Park Lane Hospital, opened as a Broadmoor overspill unit in the early 1970s.

The hospital has had a mixed history and has been the subject of two major Public Inquiries – Blom-Cooper in the 1992 and Fallon in 1998. It currently houses some 275 male patients.

The old East site has been leased to the prison service. It will be the site of temporary prison HMP Kennett, which will open in Spring 2007 and be resident for around five years, as part of the drive to increase prison capacity in the United Kingdom.

[edit] Practices

In the surrounding area of Maghull, Lydiate, Melling and beyond, Ashworth is noted for the weekly test of its alarm system, sounded at 9:00 every Monday morning. Such an alarm system is audible in much of the surrounding area, as far afield as the outskirts of Kirkby and Skelmersdale. This alarm system is intended to warn residents and institutions of escapees, of which there have only been two in its history as a mental hospital.