£10m plan to expand psychiatric secure unit
28 Sunday Mail A secure hospital housing some of Scot land’s most dangerous psychiatric patients is to have a £10million expansion.
The Rowanbank Clinic, off a residential street in Balornock, Glasgow, opened 10 years ago amid protests.
It has 74 beds and houses many patients formerly detained at the State Hospital at Carstairs.
Now two extra wards – to cater for a further 18 patients from elsewhere – are to be built at a cost of £9.8million.
The proposals are likely to be approved at a Greater Glasgow health board meeting on Tuesday.
The new wards, due to open in 2019, will be built on a car park between the e x i s t i n g cl i n ic a nd Springburn Park and will be linked by a passageway to the current building.
The Rowanbank has about 300 staff and patients stay there for an average of three to four years.
A spokeswoman for the State Hospital said: “A patient would be considered for transfer from the State Hospital once his mental health had improved and his behaviour was settled for a prolonged period.
“There is an ongoing process of risk assessment.”