The main focus of the Child Health and Maternity team visit to the Ridgeway Birthing Unit at Barnet and Chase Farm NHS Trust maternity services was to find out how they have been using the Pro forma for the Review of Intrapartum-related Perinatal Deaths. Not only have they been using the Pro forma, but they have written a report highlighting the themes from the reviews undertaken so far together with the advantages and disadvantages of the Pro forma.
“Very thorough and user friendly” and “very comprehensive and straightforward to use” were two of the comments that have lead to the maternity services recommending that the Pro forma is used for all cases of infant death across Barnet and Chase Farm NHS Trust. They particularly like the way it enables them to capture so much information about the case and helps them to decide which cases need further investigation.
In addition to the use of the Pro forma, the team of midwives and obstetricians are implementing the surgical safety checklist for maternity and plan to introduce multidisciplinary ward rounds on delivery suite.
They stressed how important they think it is to learn from others and have really valued the Maternity Patient Safety Forum and the webinars.