Quick access to mental health treatment at A&E Broomfield Hospital

From Friday 21 December 2018, people who arrive at A&E at Broomfield Hospital with urgent mental health needs or are in a mental health crisis, will be treated by the Rapid Assessment, Interface and Discharge team (known as RAID Light).

RAID Light is a dedicated psychiatric service run by Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT) to provide emergency treatment for mental illness at A&E.

RAID Light is provided 7 days a week from 9am – 5pm in A&E as a stepping stone to a full RAID service which operates 24 hours a day in A&E and also on the wards.

The team is led by a consultant psychiatrist and will work closely with the emergency services at A&E at Broomfield Hospital to provide mental health assessment and treatment.

In addition to a consultant psychiatrist, there will be a lead clinician, doctors and nurses who will work together to ensure that patients get quicker access to mental health treatment.

The RAID service has been launched in response to the commitment made in NHS England’s ‘Five Year Forward View for Mental Health’ for proper funding for mental health crisis care, and its full integration within NHS urgent and emergency care by 2020/21.

Andy Brogan, Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Director of Mental Health at EPUT said:

“We are putting specialist mental health professionals in A&E so that people who are experiencing a mental health crisis and attend there can be seen quickly. Initially, this service will be available 7 days a week and will run from 9am to 5pm with a view to extending it to a full service that will run 24 hours a day by the new financial year.”

Caroline Dollery, Mental Health Clinical Lead at Mid Essex Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said:

“We are pleased to support the introduction of this new service at Broomfield Hospital which will help patients with mental health problems to access timely interventions and enable them to recover more quickly.

“We are committed to providing more specialist expertise in mid Essex to enable timely treatment and management of patients with mental health conditions including the detection of delirium, depression and dementia.”

Dr Ahmad Aziz, Consultant Emergency Medicine, Interim Clinical Director – Emergency Care at Broomfield Hospital said:

“This initiative will make a real difference. We want our patients to have the best possible support as soon as they arrive at hospital. By having the RAID Light team working alongside us in emergency care, people who need mental health treatment will be able to access it more rapidly. It’s a great example of different organisations working together to benefit patients.”