South London Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme: Quality Improvement series

The South London Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme: Quality Improvement (QI) series was delivered at the HIN.

The programme delivered a learning programme to build practical QI skills, confidence and cross-unit connections in local frontline clinical and managerial maternity and neonatal staff. The series supported improvements in care, safety and outcomes for women and babies locally, as well as supported our units to be more adaptable and improvement-ready.

Participating multi-disciplinary teams were supported through an improvement cycle delivered across five virtual workshops. Additional coaching support from the Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme (MatNeoSIP) team was also being administered across the 12-month programme.

Who’s it for?

Frontline clinical and managerial staff in maternity and neonatal care across South London

  • Patient safety midwives/neonatal nurses and doctors
  • Triage midwives
  • Day Assessment midwives
  • Digital midwives
  • Preterm birth champions
  • Night leads
  • Obstetric trainees and consultants

    Details about the series

    Our training and tailored support for each individual service allowed teams to bring their own unique current understanding of their service and suggestions for areas to improve maximising opportunities to optimise and stabilise the outcomes of the preterm infant through the seven interventions listed below:

    • Ensure all babies are born in appropriate care settings for gestation (place of birth) singleton <27+0 weeks gestation or <800g, or all multiples <28+0 weeks gestation
    • Ensure magnesium sulphate is offered to women where preterm birth is imminent or planned <30+0 weeks gestation
    • Ensure intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis is offered to women in established preterm labour between 24+0 weeks and 33+6 weeks gestation
    • Ensure antenatal corticosteroids are offered to women in threatened preterm labour <34+0 weeks gestation
    • Ensure optimal cord management is received by all babies <34+0 weeks gestation
    • Ensure optimal normothermic range (between 36.5-37.5 degrees Celsius) for all babies <32+0 weeks gestation
    • Ensure maternal breast milk is received within 24 hours of birth by all babies <34+0 weeks gestation

    Image: The optimisation and stabilisation of the perinatal journey, specifically from antenatal optimisation onwards

    Quality Improvement Series: Resources

    To make the most out of this QI series, participants committed to all 5 of the workshops listed below. You can now view past recordings, sign up to new events and access resources from the MatNeoSIP QI series so far.

    Workshop 1: Introduction to QI series, 29 June 2022nnAim: introduce the basics to Quality Improvement
    Session recording: Introduction to QI
    MatNeoSIP QI Workshop 1 slides

    Workshop 2: Understanding the present state, 14 September 2022nnAim: to provide a safe environment for the teams to step back, look at the service in detail and identify areas for improvement
    Session recording: Understanding the present state
    MatNeoSIP QI Workshop 2 slides

    Workshop 3: Beginning to change, 8 December 2022nnAim: to begin sharing project plans and ideas
    Session Recording: Developing strategies and change ideas 
    MatNeoSIP QI Workshop 3 slides

    Workshop 4: Early success and refining, 16 March 2023nnAim: to enable teams to start to refine project plans using their PDSA findings
    Session recording: Early success and refining
    MatNeoSIP QI Workshop 4 slides

    Workshop 5: Sustain and share, 10 October 2023nnAim: to share and celebrate success and develop skills and plans for continuous improvement
    MatNeoSIP QI Workshop 5 slides

    For more information about the MatNeoSIP QI series, please get in touch.