Ashworth Hospital
Ashworth Hospital is a high security psychiatric hospital at Maghull in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England.
Ashworth is one of only three high-security specialist psychiatric hospitals in England and Wales, along with Rampton and Broadmoor, that exist to work with people who require treatment due to their "dangerous, violent or criminal propensities". Ashworth was formed from the merger of the old Moss Side Hospital (originally a learning-disability unit once used for the treatment of "shell shock" in World War I) and the vastly more modern and considerably more appropriate Park Lane Hospital, opened as a Broadmoor overspill unit in the early 1970s.
The hospital has had a mixed history and has been the subject of two major public inquiries: Blom-Cooper in 1992 and Fallon in 1998. It currently houses some 275 male patients.
The old East site of the hospital has been leased to Her Majesty's Prison Service, and is now the location of HMP Kennet.
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[edit] Practices
In the surrounding area of Maghull, Lydiate, Melling and beyond, Ashworth is noted for the weekly test of its alarm system, sounded at 9:00 am every Monday morning. Such an alarm system is audible in much of the surrounding area, as far afield as the outskirts of Kirkby and Skelmersdale. This alarm system is intended to warn residents and institutions of escapees, of which there have been two in its history as a psychiatric hospital.
Ashworth currently has 17 wards. 2 acute admission wards - Blake ward for those with "mental illness" (schizophrenia etc.) and Arnold ward for those with personality disorders. Patients, on average, spend some 6 years at Ashworth, progressing from Admission ward to High dependancy through to low dependency wards.
[edit] Patients of note
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- "Britain's Most Violent Prisoner", Charles Bronson (Michael Gordon Peterson)
- The "Moors Murderer", Ian Brady.
- The "Cardiff Ripper", Richard Gwilym[1]
- Robert Sartin, responsible for the Monkseaton shootings
[edit] See also
Broadmoor and Rampton Secure Hospital are two other high-security mental hospitals in England and Wales, with the State Hospital Carstairs fulfilling a similar role for Scotland and Northern Ireland.
[edit] References
Coordinates: 53°31′13″N 2°54′39″W / 53.52019°N 2.91094°W
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