UCLH midwives who started in April are settling in well and busy recruiting women to the pilot. They have challenges with the booking referral systems and are hopeful that this will be resolved soon. It will be easier to identify and recruit women once they can be accessed more easily at the referral stage.
The Early Years team as well as the Infant Feeding team at Harmood are working closely with us to ensure women in the pilot are introduced to all the support services available in the community.
Park Lane CC hub
We now have 4.6 whole time equivalent midwives who have successfully be appointed to provide continuity of care for vulnerable women at Park Lane Children’s Centre hub based in Haringey. These midwives had an informal interview and we have now begun a series of meetings and plans to determine the models of care to be used. We will then make plans to ensure that these midwives have the support and skills required to provide total continuity
including intrapartum care. The launch for this pilot is scheduled for the beginning of September as July and August are busy holiday months.
Once again thank you to colleagues who helped with spreading the word about plans for this hub and promote the expressions of interest to midwives. We can always do with more midwives who wish to be involved in this pilot, so please do contact me.
Evaluation
Middlesex University are busy putting together an evaluation package to include a women’s survey about their care in these pilots. Our patient and public involvement lead Emily Wood, has been able to involve parents in helping to formulate and feedback on the draft survey form. Middlesex University will be seeking ethical approval to carry out their evaluation at the end of the pilot.
Information
If you need to discuss in detail on any of these pilots or interested in trying out the care continuity model, please do contact me at logan.vanlessen@nhs.net or project lead for NCL, Charlotte McClymont at UCL partners Charlotte.McClymont@uclpartners.com