West London Mental Health NHS Trust

The Gatehouse
St.Bernard's Hospital

West London Mental Healthcare NHS Trust (WLMHT) was established 1 October 2000.

The headquarters is in St. Bernard's Hospital Building. ^HQ[›] This is on the south side of the Uxbridge Road between the towns of Southall and Hanwell and 8½ miles west from London, in the Southall district of the London Borough of Ealing, Greater London, England.

With its services spread across some 32 geographical sites, it employs over 4,300 people,^[1] treating more than 20,000 people each year.^[2] Due to its larger remit there are nine Directors, and eight Non-Executive Directors.^[3][4] Currently the Trust management is exploring the possibility of becoming a NHS equivalent Foundation Trust (eFt).^[5]

History

• Middlesex County Asylum, Hanwell (1831–1889)
• London County Asylum, Hanwell (1889–1917)
• London County Mental Hospital (1918–1928)
• Hanwell Mental Hospital (1929–1937)
• St Bernard's Hospital (1938–1980)
• Psychiatric Unit (1980–1992) – part of a re-organized complex of divisions on same site and called Ealing Hospital with a central corporate body.
• West London Mental Healthcare (NHS) Trust. (1992–1999) See: Statutory Instrument 1992 No. 2539. The West London Healthcare National Health Service Trust (Establishment) Order 1992.
• Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham Mental Health (NHS) Trust (1999–2001)
• West London Mental Health NHS Trust (2001–present)

The trust Headquarters occupies some of the original buildings once known as Hanwell Asylum.

Here the first superintendent Dr (later Sir) William & Mrs Mildred Ellis who were so much impressed with Moral therapy and humane treatment they saw offered to people suffering Mental disorders at the Quaker Asylum in York that they both imposed these methods on the staff at Hanwell. This was as such the very first large scale experiment. The second superintendent brought mechanical restraints – as a form of treatment – back. The third superintendent Dr John Conolly against stiff opposition backed up with much vitriol, took the example further, and did away with all mechanical restraints. To the surprise and disbelieve of many he found, like the Ellises before, that bedlam diminished, behaviour became less defensive and cooperation improved dramatically, and many recovered or much improved. This event added to his other pioneering work such as developing proper diets and conditions for his patients and battles to set up regular training lecture specialising in mental health, for doctor training, all led to him receiving world wide recognition.

Broadmoor high secure hospital: In order to end the isolation suffered by the high secure services from the rest of the NHS, the Health Act 1999 was passed, allowing NHS Trusts to provide for these. ^sth[›] After a three month consultation in the early part of the following year it was agreed that the high secure services based at Broadmoor and those provided by the Ealing, Hammersmith and Fulham Mental Health NHS Trust should be combined into one organisation. This created the existing West London Mental Health NHS Trust, which took over governance in 2001.

Financial scandal

In January 2015 the Trust called in anti-fraud specialists from Mazars accountants to investigate allegations relating to projects in the trust’s Capital, Estates and Facilities department between May 2012 and June 2014 said to involve £4m overspent on unfunded or unapproved schemes including a £1.5m community-support centre in Ealing.^[6]

Dr Hayley Dare, a clinical psychologist who was clinical lead of the women's forensic directorate, spoke out against poor patient care at the Trust. She was subjected to a campaign of bullying from senior managers and made redundant. The Trust is applying for £93,500.70 tribunal costs against her, claiming she had acted "vexatiously, abusively, disruptively or otherwise unreasonably" after she raised safety concerns.^[7]

Local services division

Forensic services division

In November 2004 a new directorate, the Woman's Secure Services was created. This was to separate the medium secure women's facilities from the Broadmoor high secure site and relocate them on the Ealing site.

• The Paddock Center (70 bed) – Dangerous Severe Personality Disorder and Broadmoor Hospital (300 bed) – Men's High Secure unit are at Crowthorne in Berkshire.
• The Orchard (60 bed) – (Women's Enhanced Medium Secure Unit), The Three Bridges (Men's Regional Secure Unit), The Tony Hillis Wing – (Men's Local Secure Unit) and The Wells Unit (10 bed) – Adolescent Secure Unit are all at the Ealing site.

Service Delivery Units

On 1 October 2008 the trust was reorganized with the creation of 5 Service Delivery Units (SDU's) to replace the 18 previous directorates. The same central cooperate body was retained in this reorganisation.^[8][9] The five SDU's are:

• Ealing
• Hammersmith & Fulham (including gender identity clinic)
• High secure services
• Hounslow (including the Cassel hospital at Richmond in Surrey)
• West London forensic

Geographical spread

WLMHT either run or provide services at the following sites:

Corsellis Collection

The WLMHT currently act as guardians of the Corsellis Collection, containing some nine thousand specimens of brains dating back to the 1950s, The Corsellis collection was originally housed at Runwell Hospital until the 1990s, when a major reprovision programme was envisioned, the collection was started at Runwell Hospital by Dr Corsellis.^[10] No larger depository of this speciality is known.

Other trusts

On the same grounds as St. Bernard's Hospital are facilities provided by several other NHS trusts: Max Glatt Unit, Gatehouse Community Alcohol Team and the Gatehouse Drug Treatment Centre are alcohol and drug dependency facilities which are all run by Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust. Meadow House Hospice is run by London North West Healthcare NHS Trust.

See also

• Healthcare in London
• List of NHS trusts
• Hanwell Asylum
• Broadmoor Hospital
• *Dell Susanne, Robertson, Graham.(1988) Sentenced to hospital : offenders in Broadmoor. Oxford University Press, Oxford ; New York. ISBN 0-19-712156-X Dewey Class 365/.942294 19 authors describe the treatment of some Broadmoor patients and together with their psychiatric and criminal histories.

References

External links

• Official WLMHT site. Accessed 2007-05-16
• The Healthcare Commission: West London Mental Health NHS Trust: Performance ratings. Accessed 2007-05-19
• "Photographs of Hanwell Asylum/St. Bernard's Hospital". County Asylums. December 2005. Retrieved 2 October 2006. 
• The local voluntary Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Forum. Retrieved on 2006-10-05
• Transport for London: Bus services to and from Hanwell. Accessed 2007-06-05
• National Rail Station: Hanwell. Accessed 2007-06-05

Coordinates: 51°30′23″N 0°21′06″W / 51.50644°N 0.35160°W / 51.50644; -0.35160