Maternity Transformation Programme
Bulletin No.78: 30th July 2021
Maternity News
For a copy of the last MTP Bulletin and a listing for all previous MTP Bulletins please use this index link
Action to encourage vaccination in pregnancy against COVID-19
Recent data suggests that uptake of vaccination in pregnancy against COVID-19 remains low, and that pregnant women are among week-on-week increases in the numbers of hospital admissions for COVID-19, linked with rising infection rates and the emergence of the Delta variant across England.
Today, Matthew Jolly, National Clinical Director for Maternity and Women's Health, Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent, Chief Midwifery Officer, and Jonathan Leach, Medical Director for COVID-19 Immunisation have sent a letter to maternity and primary care services with urgent actions to improve the uptake of vaccination in pregnancy.
Maternity services are asked to:
- Support all midwives and obstetricians to advise women on vaccination in pregnancy at every antenatal contact;
- Ensure information and materials are available for women in all antenatal settings; and
- Encourage all maternity staff to receive the protections offered by vaccination.
Women's Health PPV - Pelvic Floor Health Programme
NHS England and NHS Improvement are seeking to recruit Patient and Public Voice Partner’s (PPV) for the Pelvic Floor Health Programme, who are committed to improving care for women presenting with stress urinary incontinence (SUI), pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and rectal prolapse.
There are currently 2 vacancies available;
- One to join the Pelvic Floor Oversight Group which oversees the progress of the programme as a whole, and
- One to join a specific work stream on developing a ‘best practice’ pathway, which will help build on existing NICE guidance and make care pathways for SUI, POP and rectal prolapse more personalised.
The PPV should have either personal experience of stress urinary incontinence (SUI), pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and rectal prolapse, which may include having had a pelvic mesh implant or rectopexy, or be in close contact with patients through an associated support network. We welcome applications from patients who have had positive or negative experiences.
These will be Expert Advisor Roles (Level 4) and can therefore receive an involvement payment of £150 per day and out of pocket expenses, for an estimated time commitment equivalent to six days per year. Applicants should note that you cannot usually be appointed as a PPV (at role 4) if, at the same time, you are employed by the NHS (exceptions may be considered on a case by case basis) or are a practising healthcare professional.
The closing date for applications is 23:59 on 11 August 2021. Further details of the roles and how to apply can be found here.
Maternity Services Dataset
Personalised Care and Support Planning metrics on numbers of plans in place at each stage of the pregnancy pathway have been published for the first time, along with a breakdown by ethnicity and index of deprivation for women with plans in place at all stages. The data is published on NHS Digital’s website via the ‘measures’ file:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/maternity-services-monthly-statistics/april-2021 .
Please note: data quality is poor for these metrics at present and are unlikely to be a true reflection of the numbers of PCSPs in place for women.
Wrisk Project - Communication of risks in pregnancy
The Wrisk Project draws on women’s experiences to understand and improve the development and communication of risk messages in pregnancy. Their research is now complete and they have produced a short film to shows their findings and how we think we can make things better:
This is a really powerful example of the need to improve communication and informed decision making with women.
Aide Memoir – Links to online resources
