Designing and Building a Same Day Emergency Mental Health Care Unit in A&E

Synopsis

Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust is an NHS Trust which runs King George Hospital in Goodmayes and Queen’s Hospital in Romford.

Queen’s Hospital is a relatively recent PFI hospital. The Emergency Department (ED) was designed to accommodate 75 patients/day. The Trust is currently experiencing attendance numbers averaging 150 patients/day, placing both the staff and the accommodation under significant strain. In addition to the rise in overall patient numbers, the Trust are seeing increasing numbers of patients presenting with mental health (MH) issues. These patients are currently being accommodated within the ED, to the detriment of both the MH patients and the other ED patients.

Arcadis were appointed by the Trust to work with them to reconfigure an area of Queen’s Hospital to incorporate a Same Day Emergency Care unit on a challenging fast track programme. This would allow a wider reconfiguration of ED, resolving many of the issues the Trust were experiencing, including the provision of dedicated mental health areas for both Adults and Children.

The Trust want to provide a better environment for diagnosis and to better cope with potential extended stay while more appropriate accommodations can be found for those patients requiring further mental health support. Arcadis have developed some exemplar principles for improving the care environment within S136 units called ‘Halcyon’. This was presented to Trust who wanted to incorporate a number of the ideas even though care is not long term. Working closely with both the ED clinical team and the Adult and Children’s Mental Health teams this talk will show how Arcadis are developing accommodation that will allow the Trust to deliver the type of care they aspire to provide for a vulnerable cohort of patients thereby significantly improving the patient experience for both ED and Mental Health patients.