This year a new digital system will be introduced in the Capital to more effectively join-up care for people detained under the Mental Health Act. Nina Schmidt-Marino, OneLondon eMHA Programme Lead, talks about the good progress being made with this important work (24 July 2024).

A couple of months ago we were delighted to officially launch the new OneLondon eMHA programme that will see a new digital tool introduced in London to support safer, faster and more joined up care for people detained under the Mental Health Act (MHA).

The OneLondon eMHA system will replace the current, mainly paper-based, MHA processes with a digital solution that joins up admission, treatment, hospital and discharge care pathways.

The new system will use the Thalamos software that has been successfully introduced in other parts of the country. While fully meeting all the MHA legal requirements the new OneLondon eMHA system will support health and care staff provide the right joined-up care safely and more quickly.

Over 100 partners involved in this important programme attended our launch event in May which was an opportunity to find out more about the technology, hear from people already benefitting from it in other parts of the country and to discuss and contribute to our emerging programme plans.

I was struck by the energy in the room. There was a real sense of excitement about the positive difference this new tool can make for patients as well as the frontline staff assessing them and caring for them and the administrative staff managing the MHA workflows locally.

This energy has continued over the last couple of months as we have worked in partnership on a lot of the nitty gritty elements that are needed to support a successful implementation of the new technology. This has included working with clinicians, programme managers, experts in areas such as Information Governance and technical deployments and so many other partners from across the Capital.  

Explaining what is happening, why, how and when has been key which is why a particular focus has been engaging different stakeholders about our plans and holding a number of sessions to demonstrate the technology to the people who will be actually using it.

Thanks to this extensive and effective collaboration we are well placed for all six Mental Health Trusts to ‘go live’ with the new system this financial year starting with East London NHS Foundation Trust. We expect this to be followed by North East London NHS Foundation Trust and North London Mental Health Partnership and then the three South London Trusts.

There is still a lot to be done as we approach our first go live. For example our communications work will ramp up over the coming weeks as we distribute a range of materials to Trusts and their partners. They will then be able to tailor these materials for their own needs and use them locally to raise awareness about the OneLondon eMHA system amongst staff and explain what it will mean for them.

Delivering training plans developed in partnership with the Trusts is obviously another priority, as well as final testing of the technology ahead of it being deployed and finalising the key documents in areas such as clinical safety and Information Governance.

Thank you to everyone involved in this work to date and the work still to come and the long nights this might involve!! It has been, and will continue to be, a real team effort. Working together as OneLondon we will make a real difference. Faster, safer and more joined up mental health care for patients, while also saving staff valuable time.

You can find out more about the OneLondon eMHA programme here.