The Blog: 26 July 21

I'd like to start this week's blog by discussing our royal visit. For those who don't know, HRH The Princess Royal declared our superb Southport mental health facility, Hartley Hospital open. It was a real pleasure for the chairman and I to welcome her to our wonderful new site.

The Princess Royal met staff, including chief operating officer Donna Robinson and modern matron Noirin Smith, visiting wards and offices and importantly service users too. The party was received by dignitaries from Sefton Council, including Mayor of Sefton Cllr Clare Carragher, who are valued partners for Mersey Care.

Hartley Hospital – named after the Southport food-making family and philanthropists – is a beautiful £21 million building on a historic location off Scarisbrick New Road. You may remember a video where we spoke to one of the builders who was born there when it was a maternity hospital! Her Royal Highness warmly admired the building – but more importantly, she saw the quality of care delivered by Mersey Care staff.

Hartley combines local mental health inpatient care and related community services on one site in Southport for the first time – replacing two old buildings. The new hospital has two wards, one for adults undergoing a mental health crisis and another for older adults needing complex care. We showed the Princess Royal the bedrooms, garden courtyards, therapy and activity areas, where chaplaincy staff and others were leading activities.

The visit, which culminated in the unveiling and formal declaration of opening, was by necessity a little less flamboyant than the official openings we’ve had for our other new sites in recent years. Sanitising and all the COVID-19 protections were firmly in place, save for a single speech which was agreed as maskless. In fact, the pandemic means that brilliant though Hartley Hospital is, we have an even newer site at Rowan View which I hope can be formally opened in the near future, too.

We were unable to invite the many people who have contributed to bringing Hartley to completion over recent years, but the official opening was a tribute to everyone who’s been involved, a special day in a long journey which has involved service users, carers, staff and partner organisations in designing a world class mental health facility fit for the 21^st century. As Mersey Care expands, events like this are treasured reminders of our reputation, and we never forget that we’re continuing to deliver in the most difficult of times.

I want to thank our health and construction partners and notably our staff, who enabled us to complete the final phase of the new build at the end of last year and managed to move all remaining inpatient and community mental health services in Southport despite the enormous challenges of the pandemic.

Official recognition for Mersey Care's work has been especially high of late. It reflects well on us all, whether we're in a new building or doing a great job elsewhere. It's a team effort.

ZSA Updates

Our national partnership – the Zero Suicide Alliance – continues to be a major force for good. The ZSA raises awareness and demonstrates our commitment to changing attitudes to suicide. It offers real, practical tools to support people in need or in difficult places. This week saw the latest phase of campaigning – the invitation to become a Zero Hero.

And if you’re looking for a charity to support, especially for an event, whether it’s the Three Peaks challenge or a sponsored silence, why not choose the ZSA, now on Virgin Giving. If the ZSA training isn’t something you’ve seen before, or had time to go through, please do so and share the links as widely as you can too. If you’re a quizzer, pencil in Friday, 10 September – we’ll be holding a Zero Hero Celebrity Big Quiz online. It’ll be World Suicide Prevention Day: a great chance to be positive and have some fun.

Have a good week, stay safe and let’s hope for some Olympic success to keep us buoyed up!

Prof Joe Rafferty CBE

Chief Executive