Around 42,500 women gave birth in the East Midlands over the last year. The average age of pregnant women is increasing as are the number and the complexity of their coexisting medical conditions. With the advances in medicine more women with complex illnesses who may not have contemplated pregnancy in the past are now becoming pregnant. Many are at higher risk of complications, both to their and to their baby’s health. The EMMMN strives to ensure the best care possible with the right specialist input as needed.
Directory and care pathways
To support local services in deciding who is at highest risk and ought to be referred for specialist input the EMMMN has created a directory of local and regional specialists as well as care pathway guidance to help ensure that those most in need are referred for discussion at a multidisciplinary meeting MDT. This guidance has been conceived as a ‘minimum standard’ – the friendly MDTs are very happy to receive referrals for any women where the treating teams feel further input is desirable.
MDTs
The EMMMN now offers monthly MDTs for the following specialties:
The meetings are co-chaired by a medical specialist with expertise in pregnancy care and an obstetrician with expertise in maternal medicine as well as an obstetric anaesthetist where needed. Invitation is open to doctors and advanced care practitioners, specialist nurses, and midwives. We strongly encourage attendance solely for educational purposes.
To be added to the invite list please email eastmidlandsmaternalmedicinenetwork@uhl-tr.nhs.uk from an nhs email address and let us know which of the MDT invitations you would like to receive.
Referral
Communication between multiple healthcare providers and the variety of IT systems plagues effective NHS communication. To break down these barriers and to ensure that both referring teams and the MDTs maintain oversight with easy access to up to date clinical information the EMMMN has procured a license for Refer-a-Patient application.
Refer-a-Patient is a secure system already in wide use across the region for other specialist clinical services that does not require account access – healthcare providers with access to the women’s records are able to retrieve the latest clinical information and advice through the use of a unique identifier or QR code. Referrals are straightforward and updates will be published at the time of MDT review.
Urgent advice
Please also use Refer-a-Patient for urgent referrals: the system is monitored Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. The EMMMN will facilitate urgent expert advice. For emergencies outside these times please refer to most appropriate specialty directly via other existing pathways.
Referral outcomes
The MDTs are collaborative: the MDT recommendations are based on a discussion with the referrer, taking into account local expertise and concerns, the woman’s preferences and the specialist advice. The aim is to offer comprehensive advice for antenatal, intra-partum and post-partum care.
Practically this means that the recommendation may be for women to continue with their care locally with ongoing MDT input if desired or required, or to transfer their care for investigation, management and / or delivery to a tertiary centre. Our overarching aim is to provide the safest care closest to home.
“safest care closest to home”
We are fortunate in the East Midlands in that we have excellent District General Hospitals as well as three geographically dispersed Tertiary Centres. This allows us to create bespoke personalised care plans for all women.
