THE last brick has been laid on a new mental health unit for the elderly, which will replace the outdated Victoria Hospital.

The £9.2m facility beside the Great Western Hospital is due to be completed in October.

Patients at the state-of-the art unit will have 24 private bedrooms and two courtyard gardens. Their bedrooms will overlook and open onto the gardens. It will also have two mixed-sex wards and a multi-faith chapel. All of the patient's services are on the ground floor of the new unit unlike at Victoria Hospital where one ward is upstairs.

About 30 patients currently stay at the Victoria Hospital in Okus Road in cramped conditions. The old hospital site has been put up for sale and staff and patients will move to the new mental health unit when it is ready. Laura McMurtrie, chief executive for the Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, attended a topping out ceremony on the new building's roof yesterday.

She said: "I'm delighted to be here to mark the beginning of a new era in the care of older adults in Swindon. It is critically important that all our service users are looked after in modern buildings.

"We are very much looking forward to moving in to the new unit later on in the year. Our staff in the older adult service were heavily involved in the design of the building."

Victoria Hospital site supervisor Sabrina Widdows said that conditions for patients would be vastly improved.

She said: "The new building has been purpose-built for the age group we look after.

"It will be a massive change for patients from what they've been used to.

"The private bedrooms will make a big difference because at the moment they stay in wards with curtains. They will have more freedom and space in a better environment.

"We are looking forward to the move and are so excited. Everyone believes it is a positive change. We are busy choosing names for the overall site, wards and therapy centre."

The mental health unit opened at the Victoria Hospital in 1993.

It provides in-patient services for older people with mental health problems such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease and severe depression.

Contractors Kier Western presented Patsy Newton, chairwoman of Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust, with a £1,500 cheque for the GWH baby unit.