Search the hub
Showing results for tags 'Obstetrics and gynaecology/ Maternity'.
Found 404 results
-
Content Article
.png.06ca01cc678fb3ddc0ca52beca2f9945.png)
Sodium Valproate is a treatment for epilepsy and bipolar disorder. It can cause an increased risk of developmental, physical and neurological harms to the human embryo or fetus. This NHS letter is a reminder of information that every woman and girl of childbearing age should receive from their doctors when the drug is first prescribed. It contains important reminders of safety considerations, including around contraception, pregnancy and regular prescribing reviews. Further recommended reading: Sodium Valproate: The Fetal Valproate Syndrome Tragedy Analysing the Cumberlege Review: Who should join the dots for patient safety? (Patient Safety Learning) Findings of the Cumberlege Review: informed consent (Patient Safety Learning) First Do No Harm. The report of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review Regulatory flaws: Women were catastrophically failed in the mesh, Primodos and Sodium Valproate tragedies (Kath Sansom) -
Content ArticleThis video, from the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB), will help clinical staff to understand what to expect when asked to take part in an HSIB maternity investigation interview. You will meet some of the HSIB maternity investigation team, who'll talk you through the interview. You will also hear from NHS staff, who will talk you through their experience of being involved in a maternity investigation.
-
Content Article
MASIC: Find support after a birth injury
PatientSafetyLearning Team posted an article in Maternity
MASIC is the only charity in the UK dedicated to supporting women who have sustained serious childbirth injuries. It is run by a team of MASIC advocates who have experienced injury themselves and are led by a small Executive team and Board of Trustees who have all either worked with or represented women who have suffered an obstetric anal sphincter injury (OASI) injury and who are dedicated to treatment and prevention of these injuries. The link below will take you to a section of their website designed to help guide people looking for support after a birth injury, including: Support from your GP Helpline support NHS support Private support Mental health support Legal support Work and employment Psychological support. -
Content ArticleWyndaele et al. evaluated the trends in female stress urinary incontinence (SUI) surgery in a UK tertiary referral centre during five years before the July 2018 tape suspension and to compare it with NHS England data. They found that when all invasive treatment options are transparently presented to female patients with SUI, they prefer other surgical treatments as an alternative to mid-urethral sling.
-
Content ArticleThere is concern among patients, surgeons and health authorities regarding reported adverse patient outcomes following use of mesh in certain urogynaecological surgical procedures. The European Society of Coloproctology (ESCP) has conducted an extensive review of the surgical literature on the outcome of use of mesh in the pelvis of patients who have undergone bowel surgery and will shortly publish its recommendations. ESCP would like to hear from patients who have had both good and not so good experiences with colorectal surgery using mesh such as operations for rectal prolapse (rectopexy), or operations for advanced rectal cancer/inflammatory bowel disease who had mesh inserted to assist in skin closure of the back passage area. The survey is designed to capture the experience of patients who have had an operation that involved using mesh in the pelvis as a part of a colorectal (bowel) surgical operation. The survey is NOT designed to cover outcomes following urogynaecological operations for prolapse or urinary incontinence. The use of mesh as part of abdominal wall hernia repair is also not included.
-
Content Article
Cervical screening when deaf
PatientSafetyLearning Team posted an article in Women's health
In this blog, published by Jo's cervical cancer trust, we hear from two deaf women who have shared their experiences of a cervical screening (and colposcopy) appointment, as well as their top tips for others. -
News Article
US physician gets 59-year sentence for unneeded patient surgeries, $20M fraud
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A Virginia gynaecologist has been sentenced to 59 years in prison for a fraud scheme that caused insurance programmes to lose more than $20 million, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Javaid Perwaiz was sentenced after being convicted last November of 52 counts of healthcare fraud and false statements related to a scheme in which he performed medically unnecessary surgeries, including hysterectomies and improper sterilisations, on his patients. From about 2010 to 2019, Dr. Perwaiz often falsely told his patients that they needed the surgeries because they had cancer or could avoid cancer, prosecutors said. Additionally, evidence showed Dr. Perwaiz falsified records for his obstetric patients to induce labor early to ensure he was reimbursed for the deliveries and violated Medicaid's required 30-day waiting period for elective sterilisation procedures by backdating records to make it appear that he had complied with the waiting period. Dr. Perwaiz also billed insurance companies for diagnostic procedures that he only pretended to perform at his office, prosecutors said. "Motivated by his insatiable and reprehensible greed, Perwaiz used an arsenal of horrifying tactics to manipulate and deceive patients into undergoing invasive, unnecessary and devastating medical procedures," Raj Parekh, acting U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, stated. "In many instances, the defendant shattered their ability to have children by using fear to remove organs from their bodies that he had no right to take." Read full story Source: Becker's Hospital Review, 18 May 2021 -
Content Article
.png.69855d43888b58642d2de4fb8a4ebc79.png)
Solace is a London-based charity working to end violence against women and girls. In this blog, Chief Executive, Fiona Dwyer highlights the increased risk of abuse during pregnancy and how healthcare staff can help identify and reduce significant harm. -
Content Article
Leaflet on reduced fetal movement
PatientSafetyLearning Team posted an article in Maternity
This leaflet has been developed by Tommy’s and NHS England to help pregnant people understand more about their baby's movements, why it is important and when to seek advice. The leaflet contains clear messaging on reduced fetal movements consistent with national guidelines. -
News Article
Consultant who carried out unauthorised research loses challenge over dismissal
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A consultant at St Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny who carried out unauthorised research on five female patients during routine gynaecological procedures has failed in a High Court challenge to prevent his dismissal by the HSE. Consultant gynaecologist Ray O’Sullivan claimed a decision by the HSE’s chief executive, Paul Reid, on December 23rd, 2019 to recommend his dismissal was “fatally flawed” for reasons including a failure to allow him the opportunity to comment on an expert’s report into his professional performance. The hospital began an investigation after nursing staff expressed concern about the risk of infection from a procedure carried out on five patients on September 4th and 5th, 2018 under the direction of Prof O’Sullivan. A catheter and small pressure pad was placed, without their consent and without seeking approval from the hospital’s ethics committee, inside the vagina of five patients who were having a hysteroscopy. This was done as part of a feasibility study designed to see if certain procedures could be carried out without the use of a speculum (a device commonly used in vaginal exams) . The court heard the five patients, who were tested for infection including HIV, were greatly shocked and upset when St Luke’s informed them about what happened at open disclosure meetings. Read full story Source: The Irish Times, 27 April 2021 -
Content Article
The Lancet: Miscarriage matters (26 April 2021)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Maternity
Miscarriage is common, affecting one in ten women in their lifetime, with an estimated 23 million miscarriages globally. Despite this, the impact and consequences of miscarriage are underestimated, resulting in an attitude of acceptance of miscarriage and system of care which is currently fragmented and can be of poor quality. A new series of three papers published in The Lancet reviews this evidence on miscarriage and challenges many misconceptions. The authors, Siobhan Quenby, Arri Coomarasamy, and colleagues, call for a complete rethink of the narrative around miscarriage and a comprehensive overhaul of medical care and advice offered to women who have miscarriages. -
News Article
Miscarriage rates 'over 40% higher' in black women
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Black women face a significantly higher risk of having a miscarriage than white, research suggests. The Lancet analysis of data on 4.6 million pregnancies in seven countries suggests being black increases miscarriage risk by 43%. It calls for people in the UK to be given support after their first pregnancy loss. Currently, referral to specialist clinics usually occurs after three consecutive losses only. Most countries, including the UK, do not collect statistics, but researchers estimate: 15% of pregnancies end in loss 1% of women will experience recurrent miscarriage. Some estimates of miscarriage rate are higher, but this is due to differences in how countries define pregnancy loss, which can be from a positive pregnancy test or from a scan. The report also found that women who suffered miscarriage, from all ethnic backgrounds, are more vulnerable to long-term health problems, such as blood clots, heart disease and depression. Read full story Source: BBC News, 27 April 2021 -
Content ArticleThis article discusses evidence that doctors-in-training and medical students are still performing pelvic exams on anesthetized women without their consent.
-
News Article
Royal Derby Hospital: Women's care reviewed over gynaecology concerns
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Nearly 400 women who were treated by a consultant gynaecologist who "unnecessarily harmed" some patients are being invited to have their care reviewed by an independent expert. University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Trust is writing to 383 patients treated by Daniel Hay. His conduct has been under investigation since 2019 after hospital colleagues raised concerns. The trust has said at least eight of his patients had been harmed. It has not provided any further information on the nature of the harm. Mr Hay worked at the Royal Derby Hospital and Ripley Hospital between 2015 and 2018. The trust initially reviewed his patients who had undergone major surgery such as hysterectomies, before being expanded to include intermediate care, including diagnostic tests. By December, 383 former patients had been included in the review. Now the trust has pledged to invite each one for a virtual meeting with an independent consultant gynaecologist to discuss their care outcome, starting with those who underwent major surgery. Read full story Source: BBC News, 22 April 2021 -
Content ArticleThis article, published in The Journal of Patient Safety and Risk Management, Albert Wu argues a focus on maternal and newborn safety are critical to getting a strong start in the first 1000 days. "Simply providing skilled care to mothers during pregnancy, during and after birth would contribute greatly. But families and communities concerned about the quality of local services may still need to be convinced that such care is needed. And there is a continued need identify additional factors that can save lives in childbirth and to improve systems to address them."
-
Content ArticleThe prevalence of facility-based childbirth in low-resource settings has increased dramatically during the past two decades, yet gaps in the quality of care persist and mortality remains high. The World Health Organization (WHO) Safe Childbirth Checklist, a quality-improvement tool, promotes systematic adherence to practices that have been associated with improved childbirth outcomes. This study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, found that birth attendants’ adherence to essential birth practices was higher in facilities that used the coaching-based WHO Safe Childbirth Checklist program than in those that did not, but maternal and perinatal mortality and maternal morbidity did not differ significantly between the two groups.
-
News ArticleA 23-year-old woman who begged doctors to remove her womb to relieve chronic pain says the surgery is being refused due to her age and childless status. Hannah Lockhart has endometriosis, a condition that can cause debilitating pain, heavy periods and infertility. Although she has always wanted her own children, Hannah says her daily pain is now so severe she wants a hysterectomy. "It's heartbreaking that just because I'm so young I have to keep suffering," she told the BBC's Evening Extra. Ms Lockhart, from Bangor in County Down, has been in hospital seven times in the past year because of crippling pain from endometriosis. "Every single day I'm taking morphine, I'm taking different tablets for nerves to try and stop the pain and nothing works," she said. Read full story Source: BBC News, 14 April 2021
-
Content ArticleIn this article, published in The Practising Midwife, Rachel Crowe argues that in the UK, pregnant women who are hearing impaired or D/deaf (sign language users) and deaf (who are hard of hearing but who have English as their first language and may lipread and/or use hearing aids) are often labelled as high risk and offered a care pathway that is unsuitable and detrimental to their care. Identifying the gaps in maternity that exist in current guidelines and practice can help midwives to ensure women get appropriate, high-quality woman-centred care. This article provides an overview to the needs of D/deaf birthing people with a number of recommendations and tools for use in clinical practice.
-
Content Article
Multilingual maternity resources
PatientSafetyLearning Team posted an article in Maternity
This is the Herts and West Essex Local Maternity and Neonatal system multilingual maternity resource padlet. It includes resources in multiple languages including Sign Language an in audio form. The initial concept and content was developed by Charlotte Easton, Better Births Project Midwife at West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust. -
Content Article
Neonatal herpes – more common than you think?
PatientSafetyLearning Team posted an article in Maternity
Neonatal herpes is a rare, and potentially fatal, disease which usually occurs in the first four weeks of a baby's life. It is caused by the same virus that causes cold sores and genital infections – the herpes simplex virus (HSV). Early recognition and treatment has been shown to significantly improve babies' chances of making a full recovery. In the first of a series of blogs, Sarah de Malplaquet, Chief Executive and Founder of the Kit Tarka Foundation, explains why they are joint-funding new research into neonatal herpes, and how the findings could help save many lives. -
Content ArticleThis toolkit has been co-produced by the national Maternity Transformation Programme and a selection of service user representatives to help local maternity systems produce their own communications plans and activities. It provides helpful advice and suggestions about how to communicate with women of different backgrounds, about the extra care support that is available to them, as well as signposting to currently available publications, messaging, insights and templates. The aim is to raise awareness amongst pregnant women from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds that extra support and help is available to them during this uncertain coronavirus period.
-
Content ArticleThis article, published by the Medical Journal of Australia, reviews the current evidence for models of maternity care that provide midwifery continuity of care, in terms of their impact on clinical outcomes, the views of midwives and childbearing women, and health service costs.
-
News Article
Miscarriage associated with higher risk of women’s early death
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Miscarriage may be associated with an increased risk of early death, researchers have said. The BMJ published a study suggesting that this risk is particularly acute for those who have experienced repeated miscarriages, especially ones that occurred early on in a woman’s life. US-based researchers said that women who had experienced a miscarriage were 19% more likely to die prematurely. They pointed out that a miscarriage “could be an early marker of future health risk in women.” The authors of the paper hoped to see if there was any link between miscarriage and a risk of death before the age of 70. Data used was taken from 101,681 women as part of the Nurses’ Health Study in the US. This was made up of female nurses aged between 25 and 42 years. The researchers followed the women for 24 years and said that 2,936 premature deaths were recorded, this included 1,346 from cancer and 269 from cardiovascular disease. It appeared that death rates from all causes were comparable both for women with and without a history of miscarriage. However, rates were higher for women who had experienced three or more miscarriages as well as for women who had their first miscarriage under the age of 24. The study found that the association between miscarriage, or “spontaneous abortion,” and premature death was strongest for deaths from cardiovascular disease. Read full story Source: The Independent, 25 March 2021 -
Content ArticleS. Dorothy Smith instinctively knew that something was wrong with her daughter Katiana, but was dismissed as a hysterical first-time mum who just couldn't cope with normal newborn crying. She wrote a guest post for the Hysterical Women website, which can be accessed via the link below.
-
Content ArticleA patient satisfaction survey for outpatient hysteroscopy for patient's to share their comments on the service they received.
.png.06ca01cc678fb3ddc0ca52beca2f9945.png)
.png.69855d43888b58642d2de4fb8a4ebc79.png)
