One year on from the launch of the OneLondon eMHA programme we hear from Programme Lead, Nina Schmidt-Marino, about the progress made introducing the new eMHA by Thalamos system and the plans to maximise the benefits of the new system for both patients and staff over the year ahead (29 April 2025).

Introduction

This week marks one year on from the launch of the OneLondon eMHA programme aimed at introducing a new digital tool in London to support safer, quicker and more joined-up care for people detained under the Mental Health Act (MHA).

The eMHA by Thalamos system modernises how Trust staff, local authority staff and Section 12 doctors access, record and share information. The system helps to reduce delays and makes it easier to work together with other health and care professionals to best meet the needs of patients.   

Last May we brought partners together for an event to introduce the new system, the benefits it would deliver and to discuss how we would work together to deliver this in the Capital.

Making a difference together

What a year it has been!

Thanks to the hard work by so many people across the Capital and beyond the new eMHA by Thalamos system has been launched in five mental health Trusts.

Since the new system was launched in the first Trust in November last year it has been used a total of around 38,000 times by around 2,000 different health and care staff with more being trained and starting to use the new system each week. 

To date the system has been used to support over 900 patient admissions and it has been used to create around 5,000 statutory MHA forms.

While still early days this is a real accomplishment. Staff are starting to report how the new system is easy to use, helps reduce errors and will be able to support faster and more joined-up care for patients.

For example a Consultant Liaison Psychologist at East London NHS Foundation Trust said “The new eMHA by Thalamos system makes it easier to complete and share patient forms and it is so much easier to make corrections to paperwork which helps ensure patients get the right care sooner.”

And a Mental Health Law Manager at South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust said “we’ve already experienced significant improvements in efficiency and accuracy when processing MHA section papers”.

It is great to hear this positive feedback and we look forward to hearing more stories about how the new system is making a difference over the weeks ahead as even more staff start to use it.

Next steps

In the coming weeks we hope to bring partners together to discuss the lessons learned and the next steps in the programme that will help us to maximise the benefits of the new system.

Firstly, we are evaluating the benefits of the new system. While the anecdotal feedback is great it is really important that we are able to quantify the difference the new system is making whether in terms of speeding up patient care, reducing errors, saving staff time or other benefits. That is why we are working with Trusts to track data and are also in the process of commissioning an independent evaluation of the programme.

Secondly we want to maximise use of the new system among staff so more people benefit from the joined-up care it supports. That is why we are working with Trusts and their partners to continue to support their local communications and training, specifically targeting staff groups where there is lower usage. Sharing good practice about what works well is key as well as promoting the benefits of the new system.

Finally, we want to ensure that the new system is as useful as possible to as many staff as possible. That is why we are planning to deliver some additional functionality that will allow staff at our Trusts to receive information from the police services and the Care Quality Commission directly into the eMHA by Thalamos system helping to avoid manual receipt and uploading of information. We are also working to streamline the way staff are able to access relevant MHA information needed to administer medications as well as working to enable frontline staff across the Capital to see the sectioning status of patients they are providing care for via the London Care Record.

Thank you!

A huge thank you to everyone involved in this programme and your hard work. It really has been a massive team effort.

With so much progress made we are at a really exciting stage and well placed to take things to the next level that will see further improvements to patient care across the Capital.

I look forward to continuing this journey with you over the year ahead.