NHS ‘should deal with maternity techniques gaps’ beneath 10 yr plan

Editorial Team
4 Min Read


Midwifery leaders have outlined the quite a few technical challenges dealing with maternity care because the NHS implements its 10 yr well being plan.

Questions of safety attributable to interoperability points between techniques, digital abilities hole, and the implementation of AI had been explored as a part of the ‘Midwifery and the Digital Ambitions of the ten 12 months Plan‘ webinar on 24 October 2025.
The professional panel expressed considerations about issues of safety surrounding information entry beneath the deliberate shift from analogue to digital, with a number of, non-interoperable techniques.
In addition they questioned how the drive in direction of a complete single affected person file, which is being rolled out in maternity care first, will work in follow on condition that the standard of shared care information varies throughout areas.
Daybreak Cross, nationwide deputy chief midwifery data officer at NHS England, stated that the one affected person file is at a “take a look at and be taught section” and should use the teachings of large-scale tech implementations prior to now.

“I believe it’s additionally essential for individuals to know that clinicians are concerned.

“We’ve received to be taught from previous errors once they’ve tried to develop and implement giant tech with out having any scientific enter.

“It failed, and price some huge cash, so this time we’re concerned, and I believe that’s the most important level across the single affected person file,” Cross stated.

Jacqui Cooper, chief nursing data officer for Well being Innovation Manchester and NHS Better Manchester, stated that Better Manchester is exploring a “minimal maternity information set” through shared care information so that every one healthcare professionals, together with obstetricians and midwives, have the information wanted to ship top quality care.

“Maternity is within the highlight, because it completely ought to be, and we’re in search of options to place us in a greater, safer place for ladies,” Cooper stated.

She added that the again finish of the system is “solely nearly as good as the information that we put in within the entrance finish of the system” and stated that midwives at the moment face “a plethora of techniques”.

“Once we speak in regards to the significance of information, we should work more durable for our midwifery colleagues and our neonatal colleagues to ensure that they’ve a single supply of reality,” she stated.

Overcoming variations in digital abilities may also take effort and time, in line with Jo Witchard, lead digital midwife at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Basis Belief, including that some specialist teams inside maternity lacked confidence of their digital abilities and had struggled to transition from paper processes.

“The youthful workforce who’ve grown up with touchscreens are far more digitally adept, and as they begin constructing and changing into a part of the management, will probably be so much simpler,” Witchard added.

Misbah Mahmood, chief x data officer and scientific security officer at Bradford District Care Belief, stated that AI shouldn’t be relied on as a “repair for every part”.

“The essential factor right here is utilizing it safely. Digital is an enabler, so we have to ensure that our individuals are on board.

“Finally, we’re accountable for the care that we’re offering,” she stated.

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