NHS North West London launches digital toolkit to transform maternity care
on 11 July 2019
NHS North West London has launched a digital toolkit which aims to improve clinical outcomes and care experiences for women and babies in the local area and beyond.
In 2016, NHS North West London was chosen as one of the ‘early adopter’ sites to test a range of new and innovative ways of working as recommended in the National Maternity Review ‘Better Births’.
Since then, NHS North West London have been able to introduce more women to continuity of carer, launched the North West London Mum and Baby app and have seen a reduction in complicated births.
Consultant Midwife from the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Victoria Cochrane, said: “When we started this journey our vision was to lead the way in providing first class, safe maternity care that offers choice, continuity and has the family at the heart of everything we do.
“The hope is that by sharing the process and our learning as to how we got there that women, midwives and clinicians across the country will also get to experience all that we have set out to achieve.”
The digital toolkit for NHS Trusts aims to increase continuity of care, improve postnatal care and ensuring there is consistency of information.
To achieve these goals, the toolkit sets out four actions:
- Asking women for feedback on their experiences
- Asking staff for feedback on working in new models of care
- Assessing the health outcomes of women and babies through formal evaluation
- Evaluating the operational and financial impact.
“Following the use of the toolkit, we’re really excited to see how NHS maternity services in other areas begin to transform,” Victoria Cochrane added.
The toolkit ‘Our early adopters journey, a toolkit’ can be found here.