James Paget Hospital’s Maternity department has launched a new system to provide better safety and support for mothers/birthing people and babies giving birth at the hospital.
The Trust has adopted the Birmingham Symptom Specific Obstetric Triage System (BSOTS), which prompts staff to provide an assessment (triage) of mothers/birthing people when they present with unexpected problems or concerns, and then offers a standardised way of determining the clinical urgency in which they need to be seen.
This approach has been validated for consistency and patient safety across many hospitals nationally, and is fully endorsed by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
At the James Paget, use of the BSOTS system was launched in the maternity department in early May, and includes a rapid assessment room where women and birthing people will be seen for rapid assessment and then allocated a waiting time for full assessment, dependent on clinical need and subsequent colour allocated. The launch was accompanied with special cakes baked for the occasion by Midwife Emily Cole.
Karen Erskine, Maternity Quality & Workforce Matron, said: “Our Maternity team is delighted to have launched this nationally recognised, evidence based system to improve the safety and quality of our services. The system will support our clinical decision making for women and birthing people, and enables our Midwives to provide care according to clinical need/urgency and to confidently manage their care with clinical safety at the very heart of what they do.”
Pictured below is our rapid assessment room where women/birthing people will be see for rapid assessment, and our Triage Midwife Ghislaine Watson, Acting Senior Coordinator Emma Bolan and Midwife Brittany Blanchflower.
