People in a mental health crisis in Wandsworth are getting a dedicated mental health A&E at St George’s: same-day specialist care instead of the general emergency queue.
It’s one part of a £343m plan announced by the Government on 6 August: 159 new NHS mental health facilities across England, described as the biggest redesign of mental health services in a generation. St George’s Hospital in Tooting is on the list for one of 59 new mental health A&Es. Wandsworth also gets a walk-in mental health centre on a high street, with no referral needed and no months-long wait.
What changes for someone in crisis
Right now, a mental health crisis in Wandsworth usually means the same queue as everyone else at St George’s A&E. More than 80,000 people in mental health crisis waited over 12 hours in English A&Es in 2023-24, and more than 26,000 waited over 24 hours.
The new mental health A&E is designed to be different: fast, same-day specialist care for people who are medically fit but need urgent mental health support, in a calm setting away from a busy general emergency department, working closely with ambulance and police services. Nationally, the rollout takes the number of dedicated mental health A&Es in England from 23 to 82, more than triple where the country started.
The walk-in centre works earlier in the process. No GP referral, no months-long wait. Just somewhere to go, alongside psychiatrists, mental health nurses and social workers under one roof. Some of the new centres nationally will be newly built; others will move into libraries, banks and other high-street buildings.
What’s confirmed, and what isn’t
Confirmed: St George’s is on the list for a mental health A&E. Wandsworth has its own separate walk-in centre, alongside four more planned across the rest of south west London.
Not yet confirmed: which of the two opening waves St George’s falls into (the first sites open this autumn, with a second wave from March 2027), where in Wandsworth the walk-in centre will be, and whether St George’s gets a newly built unit or a converted part of the existing hospital. The Government’s own wording is blunt about how firm any of this still is: “final locations are subject to designs, procurement and business case approvals.”
South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust, which runs the new unit, is separately reviewing how people access crisis care across south west London, a process that predates today’s announcement.
Getting help now
If you’re in Wandsworth and need urgent mental health support today, none of the services above have opened yet. The trust’s 24/7 Mental Health Crisis Line is 0800 028 8000. You can also call NHS 111 and select the mental health option. Both are free, open to anyone in crisis, for yourself or someone else, and available whether or not you’ve used mental health services before.
It follows a recent run of investment in the trust’s mental health estate: it opened Britain’s most expensive mental health suite in Roehampton last summer, on an NHS estate that is far from financially simple elsewhere: Queen Mary’s Hospital remains caught in a 20-year-old financial trap.
