Alison Smith, Chief Executive Officer, Roseberry Park Hospital

Roseberry Park Hospital in Middlesbrough is to undergo a refurbishment and expansion of its crisis assessment suite, with building work scheduled to run from November until April 2027. Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, which operates the hospital, said the project responds to a steep rise in emergency mental health presentations in the region. The Trust is led by Chief Executive Alison Smith, who joined the organisation in September 2025 after serving as deputy chief executive at Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust and previously holding senior leadership roles across acute and community healthcare services. Smith has also been directly involved in discussions about urgent mental health provision at Roseberry Park. During a visit by NHS England chief executive Sir Jim Mackey and NHS Alliance chief executive Sir Ciarán Devane on 7 August 2026, she joined Trust colleagues in discussions following a tour of the crisis assessment suite. The discussions covered the Trust's 24/7 urgent care model and its work to strengthen and improve mental health emergency pathways. The suite will stay open throughout the works. Anyone who needs urgent help has been asked to use services as normal.

The scheme coincides with a national investment programme. The government has said 59 dedicated mental health emergency departments will be created in England, giving people in crisis specialist care in a place designed for them. Funding of £156 million is allocated to those departments, within a wider £343 million package that also covers 100 community mental health centres. There are currently 23 such departments in England, and the new sites would take the total to 82. The trust said the Roseberry Park project aligns with that national initiative.

The expansion will add further consultation rooms and a designated triage suite to the existing facility. A clinical examination space is also planned. The trust said the redesigned waiting areas would be quieter and safer than those in use at present, and that a more prominent reception has been designed to help reduce acute distress among people arriving in crisis. New administrative offices and breakout areas for staff form part of the scheme and are intended to improve working conditions for frontline clinicians.

Construction begins in early November and will be carried out in phases, which allows the suite to keep receiving patients while sections of the building are altered. During the first phase, which runs from 9 November to 10 January 2027, patients will enter through the existing side entrance. From 11 January to 21 March 2027, public access will be redirected through the Dalesway main reception, and temporary hospital signage will guide patients and visitors along the route. The third phase starts on 22 March 2027 with the commissioning and opening of the permanent refurbished entrance. Building work is scheduled to finish in April.

Assessment suites of this kind sit between community services and general hospitals. The government has said the new national departments will provide same-day specialist care for people in crisis who do not require treatment in an accident and emergency department. Units designed for that purpose are intended to reduce transfers to general emergency departments that could otherwise be avoided, and to give patients an assessment in surroundings built around mental health needs. Emergency departments, in turn, are spared attendances for which they are poorly equipped.

The trust has not suggested that services will be reduced at any point during the programme. Patients, relatives and visitors who are unsure which entrance to use while the work continues have been advised to seek guidance from the hospital before travelling. Temporary signage will be in place at each stage of the route changes, and the trust has said it will announce the opening of the permanent entrance once commissioning is complete.