The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) has launched a new positioning statement to call for a Digital Midwife in every maternity service in the next 12 months.
The trade union, which represents the majority of practising midwives, has called for every trust to recruit or train Digital Midwives to lead on digital transformation programmes and ensure systems that are introduced are interoperable.
The RCM has said it’s not just a call for investment but a need to ‘drive forward digital transformation and clinical informatics of maternity care’.
Hermione Jackson, RCM Digital Advisor, said: “For too long maternity services have been overlooked, passed over and generally left at the back of the queue when it comes to digital investment. Investing in digital technology and giving staff the training and equipment they need will lead to better care, regardless of where that care is delivered.
“There is clear evidence that more and better use of digital technology is supported by women, midwives, maternity support workers and other maternity staff. We need the Government and hospital Trusts and Boards to give maternity services the tech they need to do their jobs even better. Improvements have been happening but at a snail’s pace and we need to see this move much more rapidly simply to catch-up with other areas of the NHS.”
The RCM said it will be publishing new guidance on electronic record keeping for midwives and maternity support workers later in March.
Source: Health Tech Newspaper, 16 March 2021
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