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| Summer is here and ground has officially been broken!
Last week patients, staff, carers and members of the community from across Richmond came together to celebrate the start of construction at Barnes Hospital at a special 'groundbreaking' ceremony.
It's a huge moment for everyone connected to our Trust and we are hugely grateful to all who have supported our journey to get to this point. |
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Over £30m will now be invested to create a modern facility for Richmond's community mental health services, plus a new special educational needs school.
As part of our event we heard uplifting speeches from colleagues at the Friends of Barnes Hospital, a member of our Patient Involvement Network, our staff, and our colleagues at the Beckmead Trust, who will be operating the new school. It was also a privilege to hear from the Friends' patron, former Channel 4 News anchor, Sir Trevor McDonald.
You can watch some of our highlights from the day above. |
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Breaking ground - left to right: Dr Uju Ugochukwu (Clinical Director for SWLStG Community Services, Emma (SWLStG Patient Involvement Network), Ann Beasley CBE (SWLStG Chair), Lara Newman (CEO, LocatED), Mayor Penny Frost (Mayor of Richmond Upon Thames), Kathy Sheldon (Chair, Friends of Barnes Hospital).
With our Early Works programme now complete, we look ahead to the start of our construction programme, with our reopening scheduled for late summer 2027. Our colleagues at LS Estates are also due to begin demolition works on the eastern side of the site very soon concluding towards the end of the year.
Ahead of this next phase of works, we came together with partners and residents at our bi-annual community forum at Mortlake Hall in May. You can view the presentation we shared with all the updates from the upcoming programme on our website. |
 | May's community engagement forum at Mortlake Hall
As ever, our teams will be working to deliver our programme as quickly and efficiently as possible, with measures and mitigations in place to reduce, noise, dust and the impacts of site traffic as much as possible. And as usual you can find more information on our partners website.
We are excited to begin creating this vibrant new community at Barnes and we look forward to the benefits it will bring to the borough of Richmond.
Thank you for your support and a big thank you again to everyone who took part in our groundbreaking ceremony - here's to a great future for Barnes Hospital!
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| With best wishes, |
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Ian Garlington
Better Communities Director
South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust |
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