A deal has been reached that will keep the psychiatric ward on the main campus of Fletcher Allen Health Care. Two floors of an existing building at Fletcher Allen’s medical center campus will be converted to an inpatient psychiatric ward. That’s considered a temporary move until the hospital builds a new psychiatric center. The temporary facility will cost $15.5 million.
The hospital worked with advocates for psychiatric patients and staff at the University of Vermont to come up with the proposal. It replaces an abandoned idea for moving the psychiatric unit to Fletcher Allen’s Fanny Allen campus. Advocates and many psychiatrists bitterly opposed moving the unit off the main medical campus.