Foss Park Hospital in Haxby Road, York, officially opens

Foss Park Hospital in Haxby Road held an opening ceremony on October 11 to thank colleagues, involvement members, volunteers, governors and partners.

The mental health hospital and research centre, run by Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust (TEWV), was built at a cost of £14 million and has been running since April 2020.

Therapy dog Evie (Image: TEWV)

TEWV chief executive Brent Kilmurray said in his speech: “We are marking something that is not only important to us as an organisation, but also as a community here in York.

“It is a fantastic hospital and we have some great colleagues.

“Being here to officially open the hospital is a proud moment for me and for our Trust as a whole.”

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A commemorative wall plaque was unveiled by the hospital’s reception staff, with a message expressing the warm welcome they give to people every day.

Communitas community choir performed at the official opening (Image: TEWV)

Beverley Linfoot, from the reception team at Foss Park, said: “It has a been a surprise and a pleasure to officially open Foss Park.

“I joined the reception team hoping to make a difference by using my customer service skills, and I hope that together a team, we are achieving this.

“I love working on the reception desk, where no two days are ever the same. I love to meet new people and as a bonus I get to work with the most wonderful team.”

Communitas, a community choir run as part of the Converge centre at York St John University, were there to perform a host of songs including ‘I Can See Clearly Now’ and ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’.

Converge is a partnership between TEWV and York St John University and aims to open up York St John University’s own offer to people who, for a time in their lives, have experienced mental ill health.

The Trust’s volunteer therapy dogs were also in attendance.

David Jennings, chair of the Trust, thanked everyone for coming, saying: “This is too good a facility to let it pass without recognising it in some way.”

Commenting on the hospital reception team, he said: “We made a decision to ask a team of people to open it, and that team is the smiling faces of Foss Park that you see when you walk through the door. It’s our reception team.

“On the basis that this is a hospital about people, it seems entirely right, that the smiling faces of those people, are the ones we ask to open this hospital.”