A new 15-bed triage ward has opened in Newham for people who need urgent inpatient mental care.

East London NHS Foundation Trust is piloting the new model to manage mental health admissions to the Newham Centre for Mental Health in Glen Road, Plaistow.

The ward will become the single point of admission for all people requiring acute inpatient care.

Previously, people were admitted to one of the wards that served the area in which they lived. However, on occasion a bed would not be available on their locality ward and they would have to be admitted where a bed was available.

With this new ‘first stop’ approach, people admitted to the triage ward will have a dedicated team who will be able to assess them, find how they are feeling, establish what has been happening, try to identify what has led to them deteriorating mentally and consider what treatments will help to stabilise them.

Lynne Hunt, Interim Borough Director for Newham said: “We are excited to have the opportunity to be the first to try this out in East London. We would like to thank the NHS Newham Clinical Commissioning Group and the London Borough of Newham for their support in this very important and welcome development. We hope it will improve the experience of service users admitted to the Unit and mean that we can resolve issues and get them back on track as soon as possible.”