A single maternity record system has been launched in Birmingham and Solihull to benefit more than 18,000 women across the region.
The single maternity record will enable clinical information to be shared between the four hospitals run by Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Foundation Trust (BWC) and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB), helping to make care safer for women and their babies.
Benefits of the system include a reduction in the duplication of work with staff only needing to input clinical information once. This will also mean women will only be asked for this information once too.
Rachel Carter, Head of Midwifery and Associate Director of Nursing at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are thrilled that the single maternity record has been launched across our local maternity system and we are confident that it will bring significant advantages to care.”
The launch of the single maternity record will link to GPs and health visitors who have read-only access via a maternity portal and women can access their own information on a secure mobile app.
Sandra Orton, Divisional Director of Operations/Head of Midwifery at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The launch of the single maternity record is great news and shows that working across organisational boundaries reaps rewards. It is now so much easier for our staff to have all of the information they need to make a clinical decision, at the touch of their fingertips.”
David Melbourne, Senior Responsible Officer for Bump and Deputy Chief Executive of Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This initiative will really make a difference to the information that women and their families have. For GPs, midwifes and obstetricians the information that it will give them across the care pathway will be better and will ensure that care is joined more up, driving better quality and outcomes.”
