A new facility attached to Woodland View Hospital in Irvine has helped ease congestion and resulted in some people being released back into the community, the North Ayshire Integration Joint Board heard.

Mental health wards in Ayrshire and Arran, predominantly within Woodland View, have been operating at full capacity with significant bed pressures for a sustained period of time, with the implications of a high admission threshold and the impact this has on community teams including children’s mental health facilities.

There are significant challenges with delayed discharges in mental health wards but also with providing robust alternatives to admission.

The new Mental Health Unscheduled Care (MHUC) assessment hub is a specialist in-patient care provision in Woodland View is nurse-led and provides intensive assessment by highly qualified clinicians for a period of up to 72 hours. 

The referral criteria includes patients presenting to Mental Health Unscheduled Care teams with acute mental illness and/or associated risk profile who would be eligible to access an adult acute mental health bed, to allow  a period of ongoing assessment to determine the most appropriate plan of treatment.

It is not envisaged that children or young people admitted to acute adult beds in extreme circumstances would be considered appropriate for the Hub.

The service was due to formally launch in 2023, but was held up due to delays in estates works.

The MHUC service instead began a four-week soft launch at the Hub early in 2024. 

This allowed the hub to open with reduced capacity to test out pathways, policies and procedures. 

The service supported 15 people during the four weeks between February 5 and 29.

Referrals were received from a variety of different teams from within the MHUC service, with one out of area person also supported. 

Of the 15 people supported, 11 were discharged back to the community and four were transferred into Woodland View acute admission wards.

On the morning of February 29, there were five empty beds in the acute ward in Woodland View and four pass beds.

Whilst delivery was only for a short period, a report said, it "can be reasonably concluded that the impact of the pilot resulted in the diversion of 11 potential acute admissions with better outcomes for people who were able to be supported to return home to their communities". 

The hub was briefly closed, but reopened on March 11.

The new MHUC hub is a specialist in-patient care provision, which is nurse-led and provides intensive assessment by highly qualified clinicians for a period of up to 72 hours.

The referral criteria includes patients presenting to MHUC teams with acute mental illness and/or associated risk profile who would be eligible to access an adult acute mental health bed, to facilitate a period of ongoing assessment to determine the most appropriate plan of treatment.