AN URGENT care centre for people in mental health crisis could be set up at the Cumberland Infirmary to ease pressures on A&E and other parts of the hospital.

Health and police leaders have teamed up to bid for £3m of funding to help improve services for those suffering from mental health conditions and needing urgent help.

If successful, the cash will be used to create a dedicated unit at the Carlisle hospital for those needing immediate support.

A telephone triage service will also be set up to help police officers, out of hours doctors, paramedics and others who come across patients in crisis, ensuring they access the right support.

Janice Horrocks, accountable officer for mental health at NHS Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), explained: “It will offer an alternative A&E door for people with mental health conditions.

“In the second year, because it’s on the Cumberland Infirmary site, we would hope to open some urgent, very short stay beds in that unit, providing 24 to 48 hour support.

“For example, people coming in drunk at the moment are going in to other areas of the infirmary because it is not safe to go home, or they might have had an overdose and need help.”

She told the authority’s governing body she has been reviewing how agencies across Cumbria respond to those in mental health crisis.

Although there is some good work, she said at present there is no joined-up approach. Mrs Horrocks therefore wants to see various services co-located to tackle the issues, and dedicated units across the county.

Should funding – from the Police Innovation Fund – be secured, the Carlisle hospital scheme would be a pilot. If successful, the intention would be to find further funds to replicate it across Cumbria.

“At the moment police officers are spending hours and hours with mental health patients when we need to have them out on the beat.

“We did some work with the police, out-of-hours doctors to look at what we can do. To look at making a step change,” explained Mrs Horrocks.

The telephone service would allow police, paramedics and other support services to access patient records to see if they are already receiving support and ensure they get relevant help quickly.

Meanwhile, the dedicated crisis unit would mean patients who need hospital care can get it in an appropriate setting, from specially trained staff.