Improving access to City and Hackney adult mental health services

City and Hackney Adult Mental Health Referral and Assessment Service (CHAMHRAS) is the single point of entry for all mental health referrals to secondary services, with the exception of perinatal referrals, in the City and Hackney region of London, UK. CHAMHRAS was established in 2013 with the objective of providing a one-stop point of referral which screens urgent and non-urgent referrals of adults aged 18–65 to mental health services. This single point of entry simplifies the referral process to secondary mental health services—something service users have requested. It also enables rapid feedback on all referrals taken from general practitioners as well as other sources. The centralised nature of CHAMHRAS has also facilitated the monitoring of waiting times from receipt of referral to first face-to-face assessment across services. It was noted that the waiting time for the majority of patients was exceeding the 28-day target set by local commissioners. Indeed, in December 2014, only 30% of patients were being seen within this time frame. The aim of this quality improvement project has been to decrease the average waiting time from referral to first face-to-face assessment, and concomitantly increase the proportion of patients being assessed within the 28-day target period. The team identified potential sources of delay in the process of handling referrals, from receipt and triage, to forwarding to the relevant secondary service, and have tested change ideas such as the implementation of daily meetings to review referrals and the centralisation of appointment bookings to streamline the processes and minimise delays. The average waiting time from referral to first face-to-face assessment decreased by 34% and the proportion of patients being assessed within 28 days increased accordingly, exceeding 95% in the case of referrals from general practitioners (GP). We have listed changes that we intend to introduce with the aim of bringing waiting times down further.