The Warneford Hospital site has a long and rich history of providing mental health care for the people of Oxfordshire. Our plans to bring clinical care, research and education into a single site will help transform care for generations to come.

In July, we submitted a planning application to Oxford City Council to transform the Warneford Hospital site in Headington into the most significant mental health and medical research campus in the UK.

I would like to explain why this is such an extraordinary opportunity.

Through our collaboration with the University of Oxford and a local benefactor, our plans would see the creation of brand-new facilities that will transform mental health care for patients in Oxfordshire, as well as support the advancement of medical research and mental health and brain science that will benefit patients from across the country and beyond.

At the heart of our plans will be a much-needed new mental health facility to replace Warneford Hospital. The current Warneford Hospital is the oldest inpatient unit still in use across the NHS and in fact next year we will be marking its 200^th anniversary. The outdated facilities and constraints of the buildings directly hinder staff in providing therapeutic care for patients and will continue to do so for the years to come.

Modern inpatient facilities

The new hospital will focus on providing modern inpatient facilities, with a strong emphasis on patient wellness and therapeutic spaces that connect with nature. We are all aware of the impact of nature-based therapy, the wellbeing coming from our human interaction with green spaces such as walking in the park or woodland and growing plants, and this is central to our thinking for the site.

Our plans are much wider than this though. Mental illness and conditions affecting the brain, such as dementia, have an enormous impact. One in three of us will directly be affected by poor mental health at some point in our lives, some seriously so. The impact reverberates beyond the individual, weighing heavily on families, our society, the NHS and the economy. However, research into this field has lagged behind other areas of healthcare.

There is so much more we can do to develop and improve therapies and treatments for the future and create the best environment for new scientific break-throughs.

The University’s commitment to refurbish and repurpose the then vacated hospital for a new post graduate college – the first in Headington – reinforces this exceptional potential, at the same time as bringing a new lease of life to an otherwise redundant listed building.

Synergies unmatched anywhere else in the country

The co-location of clinical staff with academic and commercial research teams in a purpose-built campus will provide synergies that we believe cannot be matched anywhere else in the country – it will help accelerate our understanding of the brain and reaffirm the UK’s position as a leader in life sciences research. The proposals are nationally important.

Hospital patients will benefit from the latest research in a therapeutic environment, whilst researchers will gain real-world insight from clinical practice and graduate students will learn in an authentic and integrated medical research campus.

We only need to look a short distance away to see what can be achieved by bringing together clinical facilities, education and research. Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) have world-leading research and clinical facilities co-located across their hospital sites to foster a culture of collaboration and innovation, making it one of the largest and most productive research-active university hospital NHS Trusts in the country.

Being at the forefront of new and innovative treatments means they are an attractive proposition to clinicians, scientists, innovators and investment. I want the same for mental health care.

Developing new treatments

We’re developing a range of new treatments, such as Virtual Reality therapy, as well as trialling drugs that have been shown to be effective in treating difficult-to-treat depression and helping to revolutionise dementia diagnosis through blood tests. Our purpose-built research facility will help accelerate the pace of research – opening the door to a new wave of important discoveries. Meanwhile, the new hospital will allow for the growth of these innovative treatments. For instance, TMS therapy (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation), which is a non-invasive treatment that uses magnetic pulses to stimulate specific brain regions, particularly for conditions like depression, anxiety, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

The need for a new Warneford Hospital has been apparent for years and various plans have been considered. It is the current combination of research, hospital and college proposals that will generate genuine opportunity for delivery. The scale of benefits would not be realised if we built separate facilities or moved the entire scheme out of town. As well as not being as accessible for patients, their families and staff, it would not be as attractive for top clinicians and researchers.

No other locations in the country have the advantages of the Warneford site. The Headington cluster is where healthcare and life sciences come together in Oxford. There are key science institutes based at the nearby Old Road Campus and working closely with these organisations is essential if the campus is to be successful.

We know that the development must be planned carefully and as long-term stakeholders in Headington we understand the sensitivities. Our design team has skilfully planned the new facilities to an exceptional standard, with a masterplan that respects and restores the historic landscape and breathes new life into the old hospital buildings. Our plans have been developed through extensive engagement and close scrutiny, including four sessions with Oxford’s Design Review Panel and two public consultations.

Having spoken to many local residents, politicians and community groups over the last year or so, we know there is strong support for our vision and I would like to thank those who have helped shape our plans to date – from people with lived experiences of mental health services and members of local community groups to local politicians and expert groups such as the Oxford Preservation Trust.

We will continue listening and working to plan the development as sensitively as we can. Whatever your views, you can have your say via the council’s public consultation which runs until 29 September.