| Rampton Secure Hospital | |
| Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust | |
|---|---|
| Geography | |
| Location | Rampton, Nottinghamshire, England, United Kingdom |
| Organisation | |
| Care system | Public NHS |
| Hospital type | Specialist |
| Services | |
| Emergency department | No Accident & Emergency |
| Beds | about 370 |
| Speciality | Psychiatric hospital (secure mental hospital) |
| History | |
| Founded | 1912 |
| Links | |
| Website | http://www.nottinghamshirehealthcare.nhs.uk |
| Lists | Hospitals in the United Kingdom |
Rampton Secure Hospital is a high security psychiatric hospital near the village of Woodbeck between Retford and Rampton in the Bassetlaw District of Nottinghamshire, England. It is situated 2.3 km (1.4 mi) west-south-west of Rampton village, at Ordnance Survey grid reference SK 775 776 GB Grid.
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Rampton Hospital houses about 400 patients who have been detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 under one of these classifications:
Rampton Hospital has a staff of about 2000 and provides the national service for patients with a learning disability, women and deaf people requiring high security care. It also provides services for men suffering from mental illness and personality disorder. The hospital has a Dangerous and Severe Personality Disorder Unit opened in 2004 as part of a national DSPD pilot (the Peaks Unit).
About a quarter of the patients have had no significant contact with the criminal justice system, but have been detained under the Mental Health Act and are considered to require treatment in conditions of high security owing to their "dangerous, violent or criminal propensities". Others have been convicted of an offence by the courts and either ordered to be detained in hospital or subsequently transferred there from prison.
Rampton Hospital opened in 1912 as an overflow facility for Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire. The grounds occupy a former large common known as "Rampton Field".
The housing for the staff was built mostly in the 1920s and 1930s. There were several football fields, a rugby football pitch, a cricket field, shop, staff club/pub, disco, library, tennis courts, free indoor heated swimming pool, bowls club. All of this was built for the staff; the housing was rented and only available for the staff. The staff had to leave the houses when they retired. This stopped in the 1980s, and after that the residents were allowed to stay on in the houses after retirement. In the 1990s staff were given the right to buy their houses from the Crown. Houses were then bought at a discounted rate depending on how long the resident had worked at Rampton: the longer, the cheaper the house was to buy.
On 22 May 1979, Yorkshire Television broadcast an exposé programme titled "Rampton, The Secret Hospital", showing the routinely severe mistreatment of Rampton patients by staff. A groundbreaking look inside the hitherto secret world of a 'special hospital' it has been cited in a "top ten" of television programmes which occasioned intense public debate and engendered far-reaching effects upon its subject area, and it got an International Emmy.
A follow-up television broadcast a few weeks later reported that its immediate effect within the hospital had so far amounted to a few scapegoat prosecutions while the status quo had continued largely as before, except that no staff member could trust another not to be an whistle-blower.
However, through the next 20 years, reforms to mental health service provision and the philosophy of care within institutions led to a more openly-scrutinized environment and patient care became subject to higher expectation and more rigorous inspection.
The glory days of working at Rampton and living in Woodbeck was probably 1960 to 1990. In the 1960s and 70s the Woodbeck estate was kept immaculate by gangs of patients who worked with staff and cut the hedges and kept the place looking magnificent. The staff club had regular famous people who would come and perform, singers, comedians the best folk. In 1977 a big party and do was put together for the Queen's silver jubilee.
Further housing, known as Kellor Court, was built around 1980 but proved unsuccessful due to poor quality and was demolished around 2000. The 1980s also saw houses demolished in Woodbeck to make way for staff car parks, and open ground between the entry gate and the nearest hospital buildings was built over with an additional housing estate for staff.
From about 1985 to about 2000, more and more things were stopped and removed from the staff, for example, uniforms, the library, shop, post office, swimming pool, sports day gala, pub, disco, video/film club, cricket pitch, bowling green and club, all were done away with. Woodbeck is now a desolate shadow of its former glory days. All there is now is a load of carparks, a few houses privately owned and some still rented, some such as Rees Row boarded up derelict for years. A creche was built for child care but that was about it. Around the estate are many carparks and grassy areas with old apple and pear trees; these are all that is left from what was once gardens of the 1920s houses that the staff vacated in the 1980s so the buildings could be demolished.
In February 2000, Rampton Hospital was awarded a Charter Mark award. This government scheme was designed to both reward excellence and encourage constant quality improvement. It is focused on the quality of service provided to users; in Rampton Hospital this included not only patients but also visitors and the general public.
The "special hospitals" of Broadmoor, Rampton, and Ashworth were formerly administered directly by the Home Office and thus outside the National Health Service (NHS). In April 2001, Rampton Hospital became part of the new Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust. The Trust provides mental health and learning disability services including:
In May 2008, a group of patients lost their High Court battle seeking to overturn the rule banning patients from smoking within the hospital.[2]
Recently, some departments are being provided with uniforms that give staff a more professional look as well as identifiability.
Major developments at Rampton Hospital recently include the new building: the David Wilson Unit, for High Secure Learning Disability Services. This is a new impressive build to house patients in a better therapeutic environment to nurture, sustain and develop the treatments of the patients housed within.