Maternity and neonatal

Patient Safety is one of the key aims of the Health Innovation Network, with maternal and neonatal care one of the priority groups.

Click for more about the national picture

Together with the other 14 health innovation networks (formerly AHSNs), we have been working towards a unified strategy that will guide all fifteen networks and their Patient Safety Collaboratives, with a common purpose, ambition and priorities.

Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme

The Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme (known as MatNeoSIP), was renamed following the launch of the NHS Patient Safety Strategy in July 2019. It was previously known as the Maternal and Neonatal Health Safety Collaborative.

In 2017, there were 646,794 live births in England with 4.1 stillbirths and 2.8 neonatal deaths per 1,000 live births. Rates of stillbirths and neonatal deaths continue to fall. The care provided to mothers and babies in England is safe and of high quality. Our national ambition is to reduce the rate of stillbirths, neonatal deaths and asphyxial brain injury by 50% by 2025.

The Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme has achieved the following outcomes:

Click for more about the Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme

The MatNeoSIP aims to:

Improve the safety and outcomes of maternity and neonatal care of all women, babies and families in England, reducing unwarranted variations in care and experience of care
Help reduce maternal and neonatal deaths, stillbirths and brain injuries that occur during or soon after birth by 50% by 2025 – a national target set out in Better Births
Led by NHS England and Improvement, the National MatNeoSIP’s mission is to create and embed the conditions for all staff to improve the safety and outcomes of maternal and neonatal care by reducing unwarranted variation and provide a high quality healthcare experience for all women, babies and families across England. Read more about the National MatNeo SIP.

This process will be simplified for organisations with the creation of a single portal for reporting episodes of harm.

Prem7

Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex is part of the South East Maternity Regional Team, and in October 2022, joined together to launch our preterm optimisation project – PREM7.

PREM7 is a perinatal project aiming to improve outcomes for babies who are born prematurely in the South East region. Based on best practice the seven interventions can have a significant and positive impact on reducing brain injury and mortality rates amongst babies born prematurely. These interventions are based on the British Association of Perinatal Medicine best practice toolkits

Trusts in the South East will be working together with the aim to ensure that this optimal care can be provided. Support to enable improvements to meet this aim is being provided by the South East Maternity Regional Team, KSS, Wessex and Oxford Patient Safety Collaboratives (PSCs), and KSS and Thames Valley and Wessex Neonatal Operational Delivery Networks (ODNs).

Patient Safety Collaboratives are part of the Healthg Innovation Newtork. Patient Safety Collaborative teams support quality improvement in a wide range of areas of patient safety – one of which is the national Maternal and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme (MatNeoSIP). One of the aims of the MatNeoSIP is the support of the 7 preterm optimisation interventions.

Neonatal care for premature and sick babies is organised into geographical areas around the country where hospitals work together and are called neonatal operational delivery networks (ODNs). The networks allow doctors and nurses to share knowledge and skills and they help to ensure that the different levels of care are accessible for all babies.

Prem7 Resources

PREM7 (Padlet.com) is a Programme Management platform designed to be a repository of information to support the PREM7 QI project. It can be accessed via this link, the QR code and by downloading the padlet app on your mobile device.

SE Maternity and Neonatal Co-production resource pack – click to download

Preterm optimisation dashboard, see below, can be found on NHS Futures on ODN Network data areas Network Data – Kent, Surrey and Sussex Neonatal Operational Delivery Network – FutureNHS Collaboration Platform

The dashboard is updated on a monthly basis and previous month’s data refreshed.

For access to ODN Futures (and dashboard) please contact Rebecca Bowra (For KSS) rebecca.bowra@nhs.net

There are plans for a national dashboard … watch this space

PREM 7 – Welcome (southeastclinicalnetworks.nhs.uk) NHSE web page

For more information on PREM7 please contact

Rachael Garrett, Programme Manager, Rachael.garrett@nhs.net

Jen Lomas, Neonatal Network Manager, jennifer.lomas@nhs.net

For resources around Prem7 and the wider maternal and neonatal safety programme, see our MatNeo Resources page.

MEWS

The Maternity Early Warning Score (MEWS) is a tool to enable the effective identification of deterioration in pregnant women, part of a wider pathway of care being introduced now.

MEWS Phase 2 chart – Click to view a dashboard from the Phase 2 pilot

Three Health Innovation KSS NHS trusts were involved with both Phase 1 of the testing, Navigating the tool, in June 2022, and Phase 2 in October, Using the tool in practice settings. These were East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust, Kent and Worthing and St Richards Hospitals, Sussex. Phase 3 will be early implementation.

MEWS feedback from Phase 1 – Click to see the feedback from Phase 1 of the pilot

Feedback from Phase 2 will be released once it has been collated.

Click for further resources around MEWS

Two podcasts introducing the new Maternity Early Warning Score (MEWS) are available from the national patient safety team.

The first discusses the development of the MEWS tool and is available here

The second focuses on the benefits of implementing the new tool and is available here.

NEWTT

Newborn Early Warning Trigger and Track (NEWTT2) is a framework is designed for use in postnatal care settings including the delivery suite, postnatal ward and transitional care unit. It describes at risk groups of newborns and provides an updated chart describing the situation of the baby.

MatNeoSIP have worked in collaboration with the British Association of Perinatal Medicine (BAPM) on the NEWTT2, as part of our Optimisation and Deterioration driver. Health Innovation KSS approached our hospital units for volunteers to take part, and worked closely with Medway Foundation Trust, Kent, on phase 1 and 2 testing.

Kent Ward is a 23 bed ward able to take 6 MAC babies who are not too unwell for transitional ward but who need single phototherapy, IVAB etc. Kent ward were able to take part as they are still paper based which was an important criteria.

NEWTT2 Pilot testing chart – Click to see the NEWTT2 Phase 1 testing chart

In Phase 1, staff were asked to compare their existing system with NEWTT, over a 4-week period, with results expected early in 2023.

NEWTT2 pilot testing webinar – Click for the webinar introducing NEWTT2 pilot

South East Area health innovation networks

Contact Details:

Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex, covering Kent, Surrey and Sussex: Rachael Garrett MatNeoSip rachaelgarrett@nhs.net

Health Innovation Wessex, covering Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Frimley: Rebecca Savage MatNeoSip rebecca.savage@wessexahsn.net

Health Innovation Oxford & Thames Valley covering Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire & Berkshire: Eileen Dudley MatNeoSip Eileen.dudley@oxfordahsn.org