The NHS in London is improving mental health support for patients with major trauma injuries, their families, local communities and the staff who care for them, with a £4m investment in the capital’s four major trauma centres. This will improve the NHS’s day-to-day resilience and its ability to step up support in the event of a major incident in the capital – and has already benefited over 5,000 patients .
The two-year pilot, which is now in its second year, is funded by the NHS London Violence Reduction Programme, and led in partnership with NHS England’s specialised commissioning and emergency planning and resilience teams. It involves introducing psychology teams at each of London’s four major trauma centres: King’s College Hospital, The Royal London Hospital, St George’s Hospital and St Mary’s Hospital.
The pilot is a collaboration between NHS organisations across London, coordinated by Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and West London NHS Trust.
Each centre now has a full team of psychologists, covering children’s and adults’ services, who are providing direct mental health care to patients, alongside training and support for staff working in major trauma centres.
This is helping to ensure NHS staff can identify major trauma patients who have psychological support needs early – and provide ongoing specialist support alongside existing community services.
Prior to launching the pilot, the NHS estimated that it would help around 2,000 patients every year and support the wellbeing of staff working in major trauma. In its first full year of operation, the pilot has supported over 5,000 patients.
Around 40% of people who undergo major traumatic injury report serious, long-term psychological disorders. This can have a devastating, sometimes lifelong, impact on patients’ lives. Up to 35% of trauma patients do not return to work. The pilot aims to change this through early identification and prevention, ensuring major trauma patients get the psychological support they need at the right time.
The teams also enable psychological support to be quickly stepped up in the event of a major incident, such as a natural disaster, significant accident or terrorist attack – and will support patients, their families and staff in major trauma teams as well as start the coordination of psychological support for the wider community.
The four major trauma centres are part of a network of hospitals, air ambulances and paramedics that provide a safety net for 10 million people in London. It’s known as London’s major trauma system and treats over 12,000 people with the most serious injuries each year.
Dr Idit Albert, consultant clinical psychologist and clinical lead for the London Major Trauma Psychology Network, NHS London Violence Reduction Programme, NHS England and West London NHS Trust, said: “I’m really pleased that we now have full psychological support teams in place at all four of London’s major trauma centres. This is a real step forward in ensuring equity in high-quality physical and psychological trauma care and is good news for patients and staff alike.
“Recent major incidents in London highlighted the critical importance of emergency and community services being able to provide an early and integrated response, as well as the need for proactive investment to support infrastructure, capacity and capability. Our pilot builds on this, allowing us to be more proactive in offering psychological support and helping us improve our preparedness to immediately step up in the event of a major incident.
“This is very much a collaborative effort between organisations across London, including the NHS, charities, local authorities, the Greater London Authority, Met Police, and of course experts by experience and local communities.”
Professor Karim Brohi, clinical director of the London major trauma system and trauma and vascular surgeon at Barts Health NHS Trust said: “The introduction of the major trauma psychology teams across London has been transformative for our patients and staff. Major trauma staff have to deal with some of the most harrowing scenes imaginable, day after day. London delivers world-class injury care and we have the best survival rates anywhere.
“The psychology service enables trauma survivors to understand what has happened to them and to rebuild their lives. For our staff, psychological support and training allows them to look after themselves and thereby continue to provide the best care for their patients.”
Martin Griffiths, the London clinical director for violence reduction at NHS England and consultant trauma and vascular surgeon at Barts Health NHS Trust said: “This is a significant investment in the capital’s major trauma centres, which improves the NHS’s ability to support major trauma patients and staff through some of the most difficult moments in their lives.
“A major traumatic injury can have a huge impact on many different parts of a patient’s life, physically and emotionally. By working in partnership with the NHS and charity partners like Redthread and St Giles Trust, we want to ensure that teams can intervene at critical moments to help patients rebuild their lives.”
