The state is in the final stages of purchasing the 111-bed Hampstead Hospital, which it has used throughout the pandemic to provide children in mental health crisis inpatient psychiatric care. It will remain a treatment facility for children, Health and Human Services Commissioner Lori Shibinette said.

The price has not been determined, Gov. Chris Sununu said, but will be paid for with federal recovery money and needs the approval of the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee and Executive Council. They could get a contract by the end of the year, Shibinette said.

Sununu made the announcement Oct. 14 on the grounds of the hospital as 18 children waited in emergency rooms across the state for a treatment bed to open up. Since the start of the pandemic, that number has reached 50 and typically hovers between 20 and 35. Some families wait days, even weeks, for a bed, an excruciating experience they say exacerbates the crisis.

Like the price, many details remain unknown, including programming, what expanded services may include, and staffing beyond a plan to keep on current employees. That last one will be a challenge, but it must be solved if the state hopes to buy a hospital and expand the availability of care.

Throughout the pandemic, the hospital has been unable to use about 70 of its 111 beds because it has enough staff for only about 40 beds, Hampstead Hospital Chief Operating Officer Kathleen Collins said.

Even with many details to be determined, the announcement was welcomed by NAMI NH and the state’s 10 community mental health centers, which have been advocating for expanded mental health services for children and adults for decades.

The hospital currently has one adult unit and two children’s units. It’s not yet clear whether the adult patients would remain or be transferred to another facility. The priority, Shibinette said, will be caring for children, who often need longer stays of one to two months. But people ages 18 to 25 may also be treated at the site.

With about 100 acres surrounding the hospital, Shibinette and Sununu said expansion is possible and even likely.