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Ashworth Hospital is a high security psychiatric hospital in Maghull, Merseyside, England.

Ashworth is one of the three high security psychiatric hospitals in England and Wales, alongside Rampton and Broadmoor, that exist to work with people who require treatment due to their "dangerous, violent or criminal propensities". Carstairs Hospitalprovides high security care for patients from Scotland and Northern Ireland.

It is managed by Mersey Care NHS Trust. Patients are admitted to Ashworth Hospital in a range of ways but all come because they present a grave danger to themselves and or other people. The majority, but not all, of Ashworth Hospital patients either come from prison, through the court system or from another secure unit. Not all patients who are referred to Ashworth Hospital are admitted. Each person being considered for admission is assessed for suitability by a panel of senior clinicians. Of those who are admitted there is a period of assessment in one of the admission wards. Assessment can take just a few weeks or many months depending on the complexity of the patient’s condition. Some patients only stay at the hospital for a short period. Others stay for many years with the average length of stay being approximately six years. Patients remain in the high secure service until they are safe and well enough to move to a medium secure or other unit. The majority of patients in Ashworth Hospital come from the North West, West Midlands or Wales. Whenever possible patients in need of high secure care are cared for and treated in whichever of the three high secure hospitals is nearest to their home to make it easier for relatives and friends to visit. The range of problems experienced by patients at Ashworth Hospital includes a wide variety of mental disorders, with the majority experiencing psychotic conditions such as schizophrenia. Many also have comorbid personality disorder and some personality disorders alone .^[1]

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.

Like all the high secure hospitals there have been major public inquiries, but none for over a decade: Blom-Cooper in 1992 and Fallon in 1998. It currently provides care for some 220 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.

Contents [hide] 1 Practices 2 Patients of note 3 See also 4 External links 5 References

[edit]Practices