A new mental health crisis cafe will be set up at Lewisham Hospital to ease winter pressures on the emergency department.

This comes as the high numbers of patients arriving at the hospital with mental health conditions remains the biggest challenge.

The “hustle and bustle” of the emergency department can be particularly difficult for people experiencing a mental health crisis, Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust chief executive Ben Travis explained.

However there are risks around finding staff with a suitable skill level to work in the cafe, with concerns this might impact on the patient’s journey through the emergency department and the hospital.

“There are lots of bright lights, lots of equipment, lots of hustle and bustle and it’s not a calming, therapeutic environment for people with a mental health condition.

“It does not feel like the right place for admissions to be waiting many hours and in some cases many days,” he explained.

The space, which is being built with South London and Maudsley NHS Trust (SLaM) in a vacant building at University Hospital Lewisham, will be run by volunteers who will be supervised by professionals.

“We are working with the third sector [to create a] therapeutic cafe environment where patients who have a mental health presentation in the emergency department can be referred,” he explained.

“They will be better-placed to get support and hopefully people might go home after that, if they are ready to go home,” he added.

Patients who were still experiencing a mental health crisis when the cafe closed at 11pm would then be referred to the emergency department.

“We are trying to improve the patient experience and not have them waiting in the emergency department because its not good for them.”

The crisis cafe is expected to open early next year.