NHSE calls on systems and maternity leads to vaccinate more pregnant women

An NHS England letter has warned of “significant variation” in the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine amongst pregnant women, and called on systems to enable more “spontaneous” antenatal vaccination.

In the letter, sent to integrated care system vaccination programme leads, ICS maternity leads and other NHS clinical directors, NHS England said that while the rates of women who had received at least two doses of the vaccine before giving birth was on the rise, there was “significant variation in uptake between regions and systems and in every system, between women of different ethnicities, decile of deprivation in their local area, and age groups”.

The letter asks that covid vaccines are made available within antenatal clinics “to maximise uptake” and that partially vaccinated women “are offered vaccine confidence conversations and advised antenatally on the nearest available walk-in vaccinations”.

Vaccination programme and maternity service leads have also been told to make use of resources and funding available to drive uptake in at-risk groups.

It said: “Vaccination and maternity leads should discuss how this resource could be used to provide in-reach clinics within every maternity service, without creating additional burden on midwifery staff.”

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Source: HSJ, 26 January 2022