Rampton Secure Hospital

Infobox Hospital
Name = Rampton Secure Hospital
Org/Group = Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust


Caption =

Location = Retford,
Region =
Nottinghamshire
State =
England
Country = UK
HealthCare = NHS
Type = Specialist
Speciality = Psychiatric hospital
(secure mental hospital)
Emergency = No
Affiliation=
Beds = about 370
Founded = 1912
Closed =
Website = http://www.nottinghamshirehealthcare.nhs.uk Trust
Wiki-Links = |

Rampton Secure Hospital is a high security psychiatric hospital near the village of Woodbeck between Retford and Rampton in Nottinghamshire, England.

Background

Rampton Hospital houses about 400 patients who have been detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 under one of these classifications:
*Mental illness
*Psychopathic (personality) disorder
*(Severe) mental impairment, which is the legal term for what would now be called learning disability.

Rampton Hospital provides the national service for patients with a learning disability, women and deaf people requiring high security care. It also provides services for men suffering from mental illness and personality disorder. The hospital has a Dangerous and Severe Personality Disorder Unit opened in 2004 as part of a national DSPD pilot (the Peaks Unit).

About a quarter of the patients have had no significant contact with the criminal justice system, but have been detained under the Mental Health Act and are considered to require treatment in conditions of high security owing to their "dangerous, violent or criminal propensities". Others have been convicted of an offence by the courts and either ordered to be detained in hospital or subsequently transferred there from prison.

It has a staff of about 1700.

History

In former times the area which is now the hospital was occupied by open land called "Rampton Field", which was a big common.

Rampton Hospital was built in 1912 as an overflow hospital for Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire.

On Tuesday 22 May 1979 Yorkshire Television showed a programme "Rampton, The Secret Hospital", which was a severe exposé of mistreatment of Rampton patients by staff; it is listed in [http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1664072005 a "top ten"] of television programmes which caused serious effects, and it got an International Emmy. A follow-up television report a few weeks later said that its effect within Rampton Hospital was a few scapegoat prosecutions, and things continuing as before except that no staff member could trust another staff member not to be an informer.

The hospital was built first in 1912. Later on the housing for the staff was built mostly in the 1920s and 1930's. There was several football fields, a rugby football pitch, a cricket field, shop, staff club/pub, disco, library, tennis courts, free indoor heated swimming pool, bowls club. (Someone once said that the hospital at one time generated its own power that was free for the staff; even if you had to change a light bulb the hospital would sort you out for it, although not sure how true this is.) All of this was built for the staff; the housing was rented and only available for the staff. The staff had to leave the houses when they retired. This stopped in the 1980s, and after that the residents were allowed to stay on in the houses after retirement. In the 1990s staff were given the right to buy their houses from the Crown. Houses were then bought at a discounted rate depending on how long the resident had worked at Rampton: the longer, the cheaper the house was to buy.

Further housing called Kellor Court was built around 1980. This was not a success and the quality was poor, so Kellor Court was demolished around 2000. A big section of houses were demolished in the 1980s in the middle of Woodbeck, to make way for staff car parks.

The glory days of working at Rampton and living in Woodbeck was probably 1960 to 1990. In the 1960s & 70's the Woodbeck estate was kept immaculate by gangs of patients who worked with staff and cut the hedges and kept the place looking magnificent. The staff club had regular famous people who would come and perform, singers, comedians the best folk. In 1977 a big party and do was put together for the Queen's silver jubilee.

From about 1985 to the present day, more and more things were stopped and removed from the staff, for example, uniforms, the library, shop, post office, swimming pool, sports day gala, pub, disco, video/film club, cricket pitch, bowling green and club, all were done away with. Woodbeck is now a desolate shadow of its former glory days. All there is now is a load of carparks, a few houses privately owned and some still rented, some such as Rees Row boarded up derelict for years. A creche was built for child care but that is about it. The community spirit has gone! Someone who drives around the estate will see many carparks and grassy areas with old apple and pear trees; these are all that is left from what was once gardens of the nice well-built 1920's houses that the staff were told to get out from in the 80's so the buildings could be demolished.

In February 2000 Rampton Hospital was awarded a Charter Mark award. This government scheme was designed to both reward excellence and encourage constant quality improvement. It is very much focused on the quality of the service provided to users; in Rampton Hospital this included not only patients but also visitors and the general public.

In April 2001 Rampton Hospital became part of the new Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust. The Trust provides mental health and learning disability services including:
* Community forensic service to Nottinghamshire
* Medium-secure services provided by Arnold Lodge and Wathwood Hospital to patients from the Trent region
* A high-security service at Rampton Hospital for all NHS regions

In May 2008 a group of patients lost their High Court battle seeking to overturn the rule banning inmates from smoking within the hospital. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/7409962.stm BBC NEWS | England | Nottinghamshire | Patients lose smoking ban appeal ] ] .

A.I.M. (Artists In Mind)

*"See also A.I.M. (Artists In Mind)."The arts charity A.I.M. (Artists In Mind), based in Huddersfield, West Riding of Yorkshire was first established in a partnership between Rampton Hospital and the University of Leeds.

In 2006 and 2007, patients worked on a sculpture project facilitated by A.I.M. founder John Holt, and lead by two nationally-acclaimed artists, the Holmfirth sculptor Brendan Hesmondhalgh and Blackburn-based sculptor Halima Cassell. This has produced new site-specific works that will enhance the hospital environment.

Notable patients of Rampton Hospital

*Beverley Allitt [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2205956.stm] [cite web |url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/angels/beverly_allitt/6.html |title="Beverly Allitt: Suffer the Children" |accessdate=2007-02-06 |date=10 May 2000 |publisher=The Crime Library]
*Ian Huntley [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2205778.stm BBC NEWS | England | Caretaker charged with girls' murders ] ]

*Mark Rowntree

Location

Location map
Nottinghamshire
label =
lat = 53.2899
long = -0.8365
background = white
caption = Location of Rampton Secure Hospital in Nottinghamshire
float = right
width = 175

Rampton Hospital is in Woodbeck, Nottinghamshire, 2.3 km = 1.4 miles westsouthwest of Rampton village, at Ordnance Survey grid reference SK 775 776 GB Grid.

References

ee also

*Broadmoor and Ashworth are the two other high-security mental hospitals in England.
*Carstairs State Hospital is the equivalent facility for Scotland and Northern Ireland.