A three-month trial of acute eMHA licences has begun at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust as part of the wider OneLondon programme to digitise Mental Health Act processes across the capital.
The trial will provide full eMHA by Thalamos access to identified acute teams, allowing the Trust and programme partners to assess how the platform may support safer, more consistent Mental Health Act workflows in an acute environment.
The OneLondon eMHA programme has already been in live operation for more than a year, with five London Mental Health Trusts now using the platform for statutory Mental Health Act activity. Thalamos also recently went live with its first acute customer, Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust in Liverpool, and the Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (GSTT) pilot will provide further learning about how acute sites can be supported.
Until now, GSTT staff have viewed section paperwork through guest-user access, which offers limited visibility and expires after 30 days. The pilot will allow the Trust to explore how having full, ongoing access might support patient flow, decision-making and coordination with mental health services.
Nic Westrap, Senior Site Nurse Practitioner at GSTT, commented: “We are looking forward to piloting eMHA. Full access has the potential to reduce the risks associated with paper forms and improve the speed mental health paperwork is accepted and processed.”
Understanding how digital can support
GSTT regularly receives Mental Health Act presentations as part of its role within London’s urgent and emergency care system. The trial will focus on the teams most involved in receiving detained patients, managing statutory paperwork and communicating with mental health services. By moving to full eMHA by Thalamos licences, the pilot will explore whether improved visibility of documentation and patient information can better support these operational pressures.
The evaluation framework will consider a range of factors identified in the project documentation. These include exploring whether:
- Digital safeguards help reduce errors and strengthen legal compliance
- Real-time access to London-wide patient information supports clinical decision-making
- Automatic notifications help avoid delays in the awareness of detentions
- Completing statutory forms within eMHA streamlines acceptance and transfer processes
- Greater digital visibility assists with coordinated patient flow between acute and mental health settings
These areas will be assessed through agreed baseline measures, ongoing feedback from staff and post-implementation data.
Building a repeatable approach
The trial is also intended to help OneLondon understand what a standard implementation model for acute sites might look like. The project scope includes process mapping, configuration tailored to acute workflows, SSO setup, training, live support and structured benefits tracking across the three-month period.
By working closely with GSTT throughout mobilisation, go-live and evaluation, the programme aims to identify what works well, where adjustments are needed, and what additional product enhancements could better support acute environments. This shared learning will sit alongside experience from other sites, including Alder Hey, and will help guide future decisions about how eMHA by Thalamos is used in acute settings.
Arden Tomison, CEO of Thalamos, said: “This trial is about understanding what acute teams need in moments of high pressure, and how digital tools can help them feel more confident and better supported. Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust plays a vital role in the Mental Health Act pathway for London, so their insight will be invaluable in shaping how eMHA by Thalamos works in settings beyond mental health trusts.
“Digitising the Mental Health Act isn’t only about replacing paper. It’s about joining up the pathway so that whenever someone is in crisis, the professionals caring for them have the information they need. Trials like this help us learn how to deliver that safely, consistently and in a way that works for staff.”
Joined-up crisis care
While the trial is deliberately focused on day-to-day operational workflows, it forms part of a broader commitment to strengthen the Mental Health Act pathway across London. eMHA by Thalamos is already used by mental health services and key partners across the region, and Thalamos is preparing to go live with an integration to the London Care Record so that Mental Health Act information can sit alongside other clinical data where appropriate.
The findings from the GSTT pilot, together with learning from other acute and mental health deployments, will provide additional insight for programme partners as they consider the future role of eMHA by Thalamos in acute services and across the wider crisis care pathway.
