Maternal and neonatal care news

Maternal and neonatal health is one of the key priorities of the NHS, part of the Patient Safety Strategy launched in 2019.

KSS AHSN has been involved with piloting, and early testing, of two programmes in this area:

• MEWS (Maternity Early Warning Score), a tool to enable the effective identification of deterioration in pregnant women, and
• NEWTT2 (Newborn Early Warning Trigger and Track), a framework is designed for use in postnatal care settings which describes at risk groups of newborns and provides an updated chart describing the situation of the baby.

NEWTT2 ready for launch

Following phase 1 and phase 2 testing, evaluations were sent to the  British Association of Perinatal Medicine (BAPM), which has approved NEWTT2 for launch, with minor changes. This will be launched on 12 January 2023 by BAPM, and it has been suggested that those trusts who took part in the phase testing will be approached to be early adopters; In KSS this was Medway Maritime Foundation Trust.

KSS AHSN is delighted to have played a part in the delivery of this vital programme to this point, and w

ill be working with Medway Maritime Foundation Trust and other early adopters to introduce it to their teams.

Any trusts which operate a paper-based system in their maternity wards, and are interested in being early adopters of this programme, are invited to contact Rachael Garrett, Programme Manager for Kent Surrey and Sussex to discuss how this could work for you. rachaelgarrett@nhs.net

MEWS

Phase 2 testing is now complete for MEWS, and NHS England is now recruiting for trusts to participate final stage, Phase 3.

East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust, Surrey and Sussex Healthcare and Royal Sussex, Brighton have kindly offered to support Phase 3, which is specifically for labour ward, triage and assessment areas.

If any other trust in Kent Surrey and Sussex that operates a paper-based records system, would like to participate then please contact Rachael Garrett, Programme Manager for Kent Surrey and Sussex know as soon as possible. rachaelgarrett@nhs.net

The next development, after Phase 3 testing, will be digitising MEWS. NHS England has funding to carry out this project, and will be looking for pilot sites for eMEWS in due course.

Health Education England are going to be funding staff eLearning packages to support the implementation of the tool, focusing on deteriorating patient (available early 2023).

Other work around maternal and neonatal care

KSS AHSN has been working on a number of work streams in this area, including Prem7, which considers the ideal treatment and situational factors to promote the health of babies born at or before 34 weeks, and their mothers. The next Prem7 event is looking at early breastfeeding and ‘normothermia’, which is monitoring and maintaining normal body temperature in newborns.

You can register to attend this South East event on 9^th February 2023 10-11:30 AM via Eventbrite