I promised an update on the themes for the mslc meetings throughout 2012. These have been informed by the highest scoring priorities for the committee to focus on when we had our training in 2012:
1) normalising childbirth (February)
2) improving care to women with mental health issues (June)
3) breast feeding and UNICEF baby friendly status (October)
Along with these meetings the committee will meet in April, August, and December.
If you have a specific interest in these topics and want to attend do contact me if you are not already a member of the mslc.
We are looking to increase the participation of service users on the committee so if you want to be part of making a positive difference to families having babies in Lewisham do get in touch.
A reminder of other things happening this year;
Our continued programme of focus groups with - dads, lesbian and gay parents, women with mental health issues
Ongoing walking the patch visits on mat 5
Mslc service user involvement in the refurbishment plans for labour ward and mat 5.
Would be lovely to hear from you
Penny
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Friday, 20 January 2012
Monday, 5 December 2011
What's going on? A review of 2011
Well it's been very busy in my part of the world and the mslc has met three times since my last post. We have also spent a day together training which turned out to be really productive and illuminating. We found out that we have more in common than just a keen interest in birth, babies and feeding! Like, crafts, gardening and growing our own food, foraging for food, keeping chickens and baking.
I think as its been so long since posting I am just going to give a snap shot of where I think we are with maternity services in Lewisham.
Structures: The public health team that support the committee have now transferred to the local authority and are based in the town hall in catford. Hopefully this will make liaising and involving the council a smoother process in the future.
gp's have set up their commissioning arrangements ready for the transfer of purchasing powers and the public health team and hospital are building relationships for how services will be purchased in the future.
It will be interesting to see how that evolves in the next few months.
University Hospital Lewisham: There have been a number of senior staff changes in maternity services and these are all leading to imporvements for both labour ward, and postnatal.... The labour ward will be getting a minor refurbishment this year in particular the two room that are dedicated for 'normal' deliveries. The postnatal ward has had a deep clean and a full review is underway along with plan to refurb the space including the creation of a dedicated feeding/expressing room with all teh resources required to support breastfeeding and proper advice for formula/bottle feeding.
With the birth centre now firmly established there has been a decision to appoint a joint birth centre and labour ward manager (Lynn Bayes)and implement a staff rotation procedure for the birth centre and labour ward. The Committee think this is a great step forward in enabling midwives to promote active, normal birth and active support during labour in both settings. Would love to know what you think?
Engagement: our dedicated volunteers continue to do regular walking the patch visits to the post natal ward and get views of new mums and some dads of their experiences that are used to inform the MSLC and the hospital. I am hoping more of the service user reps are able to do walking the patch visits this year.
The hospital are trialling an electronic tablet questionnaire on the post natal ward their have been some technical issues which are being resolved but these will help with our feedback.
The MSLC has committed to engage with users of maternity services more broadly, given not everyone is able to or wants to engage in the committee on an ongoing basis. I try to do this via the blog and facebook group, and we have conducted 2 very successful focus groups in 2011 with young mums and refugee and asylum seeker mums, which has proved really useful in gathering a broader range of views that informs how we seek to plan and deliver services in the future. In 2012 we plan to meet with dads and lesbian and gay parents in Lewsisham... If you are inetersted in being involved in either session. Do get in touch.
Breastfeeding: Lewisham hospital has been awarded unicef breast feeding friendly status at stage 1 and now has a set period of time to achieve the next step. This is a great step forward for all invloved and big thanks go to Smita Hanciles and Jill Moore and all those involved in the breastfeeding working group of the committee. Smita held a successful event early in Decemeber to help develop the the infant feeding pathway for mums and babies and to discuss plans for breast feeding friendly places across Lewisham and surrounding area. More news to come on this.
The next meeting is the 29 Febuary 2012 and I will do an update on our priorities for 2012 shortly. Please comment and add to the post if you are involved in any of the work mentioned here. Or have recently experienced maternity services in Lewisham... How was it for you?
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
I think as its been so long since posting I am just going to give a snap shot of where I think we are with maternity services in Lewisham.
Structures: The public health team that support the committee have now transferred to the local authority and are based in the town hall in catford. Hopefully this will make liaising and involving the council a smoother process in the future.
gp's have set up their commissioning arrangements ready for the transfer of purchasing powers and the public health team and hospital are building relationships for how services will be purchased in the future.
It will be interesting to see how that evolves in the next few months.
University Hospital Lewisham: There have been a number of senior staff changes in maternity services and these are all leading to imporvements for both labour ward, and postnatal.... The labour ward will be getting a minor refurbishment this year in particular the two room that are dedicated for 'normal' deliveries. The postnatal ward has had a deep clean and a full review is underway along with plan to refurb the space including the creation of a dedicated feeding/expressing room with all teh resources required to support breastfeeding and proper advice for formula/bottle feeding.
With the birth centre now firmly established there has been a decision to appoint a joint birth centre and labour ward manager (Lynn Bayes)and implement a staff rotation procedure for the birth centre and labour ward. The Committee think this is a great step forward in enabling midwives to promote active, normal birth and active support during labour in both settings. Would love to know what you think?
Engagement: our dedicated volunteers continue to do regular walking the patch visits to the post natal ward and get views of new mums and some dads of their experiences that are used to inform the MSLC and the hospital. I am hoping more of the service user reps are able to do walking the patch visits this year.
The hospital are trialling an electronic tablet questionnaire on the post natal ward their have been some technical issues which are being resolved but these will help with our feedback.
The MSLC has committed to engage with users of maternity services more broadly, given not everyone is able to or wants to engage in the committee on an ongoing basis. I try to do this via the blog and facebook group, and we have conducted 2 very successful focus groups in 2011 with young mums and refugee and asylum seeker mums, which has proved really useful in gathering a broader range of views that informs how we seek to plan and deliver services in the future. In 2012 we plan to meet with dads and lesbian and gay parents in Lewsisham... If you are inetersted in being involved in either session. Do get in touch.
Breastfeeding: Lewisham hospital has been awarded unicef breast feeding friendly status at stage 1 and now has a set period of time to achieve the next step. This is a great step forward for all invloved and big thanks go to Smita Hanciles and Jill Moore and all those involved in the breastfeeding working group of the committee. Smita held a successful event early in Decemeber to help develop the the infant feeding pathway for mums and babies and to discuss plans for breast feeding friendly places across Lewisham and surrounding area. More news to come on this.
The next meeting is the 29 Febuary 2012 and I will do an update on our priorities for 2012 shortly. Please comment and add to the post if you are involved in any of the work mentioned here. Or have recently experienced maternity services in Lewisham... How was it for you?
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Thursday, 1 September 2011
HOT HOT HOT...NOT! Overview of August's MSLC meeting 2011
Well August hasn't provided the summer we were all hoping for but never the less August's MSLC meeting was a really productive event and well attended. I like the mixing up of the meetings through the year of the times and venues as it allows for a greater variety of representation at the meetings.
Since my last post, In my role as chair I have achieved;contributed to the draft annual report for the MSLC for 2011 (due to be finalised shortly)
revised and finalised the Terms of Reference for the Committee
produced a new leaflet setting out what the MSLC in Lewsisham does and doesn't do
Set up a new Facebook Group to be found here: https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/LewishamMSLC/ become a friend
Met with the interim head of midwifery and matron for Mat ward 5 at UHL.
More on all of these in my update:
Key actions or points from the meeting include:
Update from Lewisham hospital: The matron for Mat ward 5 has been appointed and started in Post - Welcome Sue Chatterley. Carmen Cross is currently acting as the interim Head of Maternity Services whilst Pauline Esson is heading up the project of midwifery normalcy services on labour ward. Lynn Bayes is acting up as head of community midwifery and the birthing centre whilst Shirley Peterson is on Maternity Leave. The hospital has been unable to appoint to the post of matron for the labour ward as yet so this post is still vacant. I think this little para on all the staff changes shows there has been a lot of movements and is still some uncertainity at senior levels in the service in spite of which some key steps have been taken to make some major changes in the way services are provided on mat ward 5.
Sue and Carmen have undertaken a complete review of mat ward 5 including, environmental health, risk, equipement, staffing, procedures, everything really.. and developed an action plan with the support of the hospital's chief executive. I have not seen the report nor has the rest of the committee or the action plan... but can only think this is a positive thing for the staff, women and babies who spend any time on the ward. Sue and Carmen have asked us (the committee) to help with fundraising or seeking donations to make the space on mat 5 more homely and less institutionalised... Ideas welcome? I think this will form some of our meeting time in October.
The patient held records: Lewisham has changed the notes format they have been using for the records for an individuals maternity journey, there are a few criticisms from midwives and women alike about the format and usability of the booklet and Lewisham will be reviewing them, the MSLC service users are keen to support and contribute to the process.
Walking the patch - It has been reported that the walking the patchers have noticed a huge improvement in the reports of staff attitudes on mat 5 generally, along with improvements in the dispensing of pain relief. There was one complicated case that has been reported to the MSLC and will be dealt with as a serious incident by the hospital which means the hospital will do an investigation of procedures to examine what went wrong and prevent in future. The family have been advised to make a formal complaint through PALS aswell to ensure their concerns are addressed. Walking the patchers are collating their feedback and sharing with head of midwifery, the matron, public health and chair of MSLC in order to ensure necessary actions are followed up. This supports a verbal report given on the Ward at the time, and is proving very successful in ensuring actions are addressed.
Walking the patch volunteers will in future be able to use language line in order to conduct interviews with women with little or no English. YAY........
At the committee meeting we had a visitor from King's MSLC who is looking to set up walking the patch at King's... hopefully she got everything she needs to get started. Keep us posted on how it goes.
Direct Access to Midwifery - Remember women in lewisham do not need to access midwifery services through their GP and can contact the midwifery team directly to be booked in for services. There are some procedural issues where there are cases of GP's not always being informed about test results etc. One of the benefits of rotating meeting times a GP was able to attend this meeting and then liase directly with the head of community midwifery to look at resolving issues.
GP Commissioning - Pauline Cross consultant midwife public health is working with the Lewisham's GP commssioning consortia on advising them regarding maternity services.
Engagement - So the MSLC has a had it's usual turnover of service user reps moving on to other things so if you are a mum or dad with recentish experience of Lewisham's maternity services and have some spare time and want to make a positive difference for future families why don't you get in touch and come to a meeting?
Seldom Heard Groups -
We have held a focus group early in the summer with young mums a feedback report will be posted shortly and we are planning a session in October with refugee women.
Health Visitor Implementation Programme - Lewisham is currently preparing its plans in response to the Governments call for action on increasing health visitor support. More on this in the future.
Well I think that's it for now.... comments welcome as always.
Since my last post, In my role as chair I have achieved;contributed to the draft annual report for the MSLC for 2011 (due to be finalised shortly)
revised and finalised the Terms of Reference for the Committee
produced a new leaflet setting out what the MSLC in Lewsisham does and doesn't do
Set up a new Facebook Group to be found here: https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/LewishamMSLC/ become a friend
Met with the interim head of midwifery and matron for Mat ward 5 at UHL.
More on all of these in my update:
Key actions or points from the meeting include:
Update from Lewisham hospital: The matron for Mat ward 5 has been appointed and started in Post - Welcome Sue Chatterley. Carmen Cross is currently acting as the interim Head of Maternity Services whilst Pauline Esson is heading up the project of midwifery normalcy services on labour ward. Lynn Bayes is acting up as head of community midwifery and the birthing centre whilst Shirley Peterson is on Maternity Leave. The hospital has been unable to appoint to the post of matron for the labour ward as yet so this post is still vacant. I think this little para on all the staff changes shows there has been a lot of movements and is still some uncertainity at senior levels in the service in spite of which some key steps have been taken to make some major changes in the way services are provided on mat ward 5.
Sue and Carmen have undertaken a complete review of mat ward 5 including, environmental health, risk, equipement, staffing, procedures, everything really.. and developed an action plan with the support of the hospital's chief executive. I have not seen the report nor has the rest of the committee or the action plan... but can only think this is a positive thing for the staff, women and babies who spend any time on the ward. Sue and Carmen have asked us (the committee) to help with fundraising or seeking donations to make the space on mat 5 more homely and less institutionalised... Ideas welcome? I think this will form some of our meeting time in October.
The patient held records: Lewisham has changed the notes format they have been using for the records for an individuals maternity journey, there are a few criticisms from midwives and women alike about the format and usability of the booklet and Lewisham will be reviewing them, the MSLC service users are keen to support and contribute to the process.
Walking the patch - It has been reported that the walking the patchers have noticed a huge improvement in the reports of staff attitudes on mat 5 generally, along with improvements in the dispensing of pain relief. There was one complicated case that has been reported to the MSLC and will be dealt with as a serious incident by the hospital which means the hospital will do an investigation of procedures to examine what went wrong and prevent in future. The family have been advised to make a formal complaint through PALS aswell to ensure their concerns are addressed. Walking the patchers are collating their feedback and sharing with head of midwifery, the matron, public health and chair of MSLC in order to ensure necessary actions are followed up. This supports a verbal report given on the Ward at the time, and is proving very successful in ensuring actions are addressed.
Walking the patch volunteers will in future be able to use language line in order to conduct interviews with women with little or no English. YAY........
At the committee meeting we had a visitor from King's MSLC who is looking to set up walking the patch at King's... hopefully she got everything she needs to get started. Keep us posted on how it goes.
Direct Access to Midwifery - Remember women in lewisham do not need to access midwifery services through their GP and can contact the midwifery team directly to be booked in for services. There are some procedural issues where there are cases of GP's not always being informed about test results etc. One of the benefits of rotating meeting times a GP was able to attend this meeting and then liase directly with the head of community midwifery to look at resolving issues.
GP Commissioning - Pauline Cross consultant midwife public health is working with the Lewisham's GP commssioning consortia on advising them regarding maternity services.
Engagement - So the MSLC has a had it's usual turnover of service user reps moving on to other things so if you are a mum or dad with recentish experience of Lewisham's maternity services and have some spare time and want to make a positive difference for future families why don't you get in touch and come to a meeting?
Seldom Heard Groups -
We have held a focus group early in the summer with young mums a feedback report will be posted shortly and we are planning a session in October with refugee women.
Health Visitor Implementation Programme - Lewisham is currently preparing its plans in response to the Governments call for action on increasing health visitor support. More on this in the future.
Well I think that's it for now.... comments welcome as always.
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