Consultant's catch-up
By a quirk of scheduling I have been the first Consultant to start on our Visit programme to Heads of Maternity Services/ Midwifery, at time of press having visited six Units across my East area of responsibility.
We planned this as our first 'topically' focused campaign for several reasons. Firstly into our second year as a Field team we now have good working links with those senior managers in NHS Trusts who have a strategic and/or generalist role in relation to NICE guidance, and are planning further interactions with Local Authorities very soon.
Secondly we are aware that NICE has produced a considerable number of maternity and sexual health related guidance over 2007/8, and recently launched antenatal, diabetes in pregnancy and maternal and child nutrition guidance over the Easter period - we want to know how the guidance has been received, and after all it is only fair to try to support local implementation in services that are somewhat 'under the spotlight'.
Finally we are keen for feedback on the implementation support materials. Some aspects of these are new, for example the data collection tool as part of audit support, and the use of flow charts to summarise parts of the pathway such as for smoking cessation advice - we want to ensure they are known about, and presented in the most useful way.
The opinion and ideas of local service leaders is really valued by NICE. For instance in considering whether the 2004 guidance on Cesarian Section needs updating, the guidance team at NICE scan for new significant evidence, look at any research to see if the guidance has had the desired effect on practice, and seek out the views of professionals as to what might be required. By meeting the key staff actually working in the service we can compliment this information by gathering those views and therefore help steer the decisions about updating all or part of a current guideline.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my six maternity visits to date. I've seen lots of babies in and around the Units but no twins yet, so the contest is still on between us to be the first to spot evidence of a multipara despite my early start! Chris Connell, the Consultant for the West has been occupied with the recent birth of his second child, so we look forward to welcoming him back to the team this week, no doubt the most finely tuned of all of us to this important agenda.
Val Moore, Implementation Consultant - East
val.moore@nice.org.uk or Fieldteam@nice.org.uk
07788 643682
