HIGH risk mental health patients are being moved into a makeshift secure unit in a Hampshire community because inspectors feel their current centre is not safe enough.

Woodhaven House in Calmore has been temporarily upgraded so that people suffering some of the most severe mental health conditions can live there.

Councillors heard how the emergency measure was needed after the Care Quality Commission demanded urgent work be carried out at Ravenswood House in Fareham which required patients to be moved out.

The meeting of the county council’s health and adult social care select committee was told how the removal of “ligature points” was among the works needed at the centre in Mayles Lane, Knowle, which is home to people who have mostly committed crimes or have challenging behaviour.

Daily Echo: Woodhaven

Woodhaven in Calmore

A total of 16 patients have been moved to the Tatchbury Mount unit and they could stay there for nine months, the meeting heard.

But the move will cause concern for residents living nearby, one councillor warned.

Cllr David Harrison, who represents the division that includes Woodhaven, said: “Local residents will be anxious about the risk to the local population because we have had no absconsions at Woodhaven.

“This is a higher category of risk than we have previously had at Tatchbury.”

Dr Amanda Taylor, consultant forensic psychiatrist at Ravenswood, told the meeting that no acutely disturbed patients would be transferred to Woodhaven.

Dr Taylor said Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust had engaged with local people, the parish council, the local MP Dr Julian Lewis and with the police and the MAPPA agencies.

Patients to be moved to Woodhaven had been carefully screened and were close to the end of their care in hospital, she added.

Minor works had been carried out at Woodhaven to make it secure but the windows and doors were already suitable for a medium secure unit. It was also as ligature free as possible, the meeting was told.

Cllr Harrison asked about how the patients at Woodhaven with learning difficulties would react. Dr Taylor said the two groups would be kept separate.

Woodhaven has been largely empty for two years because of a spending freeze.

Dr Taylor said: “It is a delight to be able to use a building that has been largely empty, even though it is temporary.”

Woodhaven’s bedrooms are en-suite but the select committee was concerned about the fewer facilities at Woodhaven. Ravenswood has a shop and sports hall, said Cllr Harrison.

The select committee unanimously agreed to support the temporary transfer.