Our vision
The vision of the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS) is based on the needs and collaboration of women, their partners and their families. We have worked with health and care staff and women from across West Yorkshire and Harrogate to create a plan for how we transform our services.
The plan was co-produced in collaboration with all our partners, scoping our services and undertaking a health needs assessment of our communities. View video here.
Addressing inequalities in West Yorkshire and Harrogate
West Yorkshire & Harrogate Local Maternity and Neonatal System, Equity and Equality Action Plan
A priority for the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Local Maternity Neonatal System (LMNS) and the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (WY ICB) is to address inequalities.
What are healthcare inequalities? Health inequalities are unfair and avoidable differences in health across the population, and between different groups within society. The conditions in which we are born, grow, live, work and age can impact our health and wellbeing. These are sometimes referred to as wider determinants of health (NHS England).
View our Equity and Equality Action Plan here
Maternity shared care record
The hospital trusts in West Yorkshire and Harrogate are carrying out a project to use the Yorkshire and Humber Care Record (YCHR) technology to share maternity summary documents between each organisation.
Currently, information is stored in six different maternity systems - and potentially in none-maternity systems too. This may be because maternity patients visit several healthcare settings. The record, centred around the mother and child, will enable data sharing across several maternity systems transparently and safely.
We’ll carry out the work in phases. In this first phase we have prioritised five maternity records which we can generate as PDFs and make available through the YCHR. The priority records are:
- Booking in - for example blood group, allergies, medical history
- Delivery - for example, how the baby was delivered, GP details, weight
- Discharge - for example, feeding
- Personalised care plan - for example, birth and post-natal preferences
- Pregnancy outcome - for example, miscarriage, moved out of the area
Improved connectivity and integration will provide clinical and care staff directly involved in the mother’s care access to the most up to date information. It means they’ll be able to view real time maternity information across care providers and between different IT systems safely and securely.
Time consuming telephone calls to understand different systems and chasing up information will become a thing of the past. Access to better information means more time to spend with patients, improved decision making and planning of maternity services as well as more joined up care.
Data is pulled from secure clinical systems. All health and care records are strictly confidential and can only be seen by clinical and care staff directly involved in the patient’s care.
Developing a common infrastructure and exchanging maternity data in this way is the first step in progressing a more comprehensive Maternity Shared Care Record.
The Partnership’s Digital Programme leads the rollout of shared records across our associated health and care organisations in partnership with the central Yorkshire and Humber Care Record team.
Data
WY&H LMNS is putting data at the centre of our work. Health data are those bits of information that all our maternity services put into their information systems. This data helps us understand the numbers of women giving birth in WY&H, their distribution across the region, the care they receive and their health outcomes. We produce an LMNS dashboard that tracks high level Quality and Safety across a wide range of areas that is accessible to all our workstreams.
All our LMNS projects use data to support the identification of challenges to service delivery and quality of care received by our patients. We support the LMNS-wide ATAIN, PReCePT, Continuity of carer, pre-term birth group, SI review panel and public health workstreams, delivering a variety of data collections, analysis, and quality improvement.
The LMNS produces a health inequalities dashboard that tracks high level quality and safety across a wide range of areas and allows us to compare the health and care outcomes of different population groups and is accessible to all our workstreams. All data used by us is anonymous and shared safely for management purposes only.
Safety
Safety is the golden thread that runs through transformation throughout the LMS. This includes working together to implement the Ockenden recommendations for safety and quality. We are working collaboratively to learn and share our learning across the system.
The LMNS has introduced processes to ensure that Ockenden recommendations are implemented. The LMNS Serious Incident Peer Review Panel is formed of Obstetricians, Anaesthetists, Neonatologists, Senior midwives and representation from the Yorkshire Ambulance Service. The panel meetings are chaired by Dr Nada Sabir, a Consultant Obstetrician. Case submissions are discussed and the panel considers whether an external peer review would be beneficial. Learning is shared at the meetings, taken back to trusts and also fed into the system wide Safety Forum. Working together to share good practice is key to all West Yorkshire and Harrogate LMNS activity.
Personalisation and choice
Better Births (2016), the national maternity review, recognised that every woman, every pregnancy, every baby and every family is different. Better Births provides the blueprint for maternity transformation, which is driven locally by the Local Maternity and Neonatal System. We are transforming maternity services to enable every woman to have access to information to enable her to make decisions about her care, and where she and her baby can access support that is centred around their individual needs and circumstances.
All women are able to choose the provider of their antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal care, and should be able to make decisions about their care during pregnancy, during birth and after their baby’s birth, through an ongoing dialogue with professionals that empowers them. Read more by clicking here
By working together with midwives and women the Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS) has co-produced two new transformational resources for use across the partnership. These include a: postnatal care and support booklet (updated Dec 2023) and a bereavement postnatal care and support booklet.
The postnatal care and support information is now available in easy read format that has been split into several different booklets:
Booklet 1: Postnatal care, birth registration and coronavirus
Booklet 2: Resuming sexual intercourse and contraception
Booklet 3: Maternal physical wellbeing and health concerns
Booklet 4: Emotional wellbeing and mental health
Booklet 5: Infant feeding and blood spot tests
Booklet 6: Baby care and wellbeing
Booklet 7: Coping with crying and safe sleeping
Midwifery Continuity of Carer
Midwifery Continuity of Carer describes care that is provided by a small team (maximum 8) of midwives who each have a small caseload of women for whom they provide antenatal, intrapartum (labour) and postnatal care. This evidence based model of care improves outcomes for mothers and babies, and satisfaction for mothers and midwives (Sandal et al 2016). Despite the impact that the pandemic has had on the maternity workforce and services, our maternity services are concentrating their new models of care with communities whom we know will benefit the most, including deprived and Black & Asian communities.
Personalised Care and Support Planning in Maternity Services
This short animation explains what Personalised Care and Support planning is in maternity services and what women and families can expect. Care should meet your individual needs, circumstances and choices; your views will be listened to and valued; you should feel safe and supported with your decisions. For more information visit this NHS England webpage.
Health and wellbeing before, during and after pregnancy
‘When women access services before and between pregnancies, opportunities should be taken to improve health behaviours and manage long-term Health conditions ’ (NHSIR 2018) . Current national legislation such as Saving Babies Lives clearly identified the need to improve women’s safety in relation to lifestyle choices and behaviour in order to reduce stillbirths, neonatal deaths, brain injuries and maternal morbidity and mortality. Read more by clicking this link.