Maternity care
(Left to right): Richard Smith, Edward Prosser-Snelling, Ann Walker

UH secures funding for enhanced levels of maternity care

The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital has been awarded more than £80,000 of government funding to invest in the maternity department to help mothers and babies.

The hospital put in a successful bid to the Department of Health’s Maternity Innovation Fund and the Maternity Safety Training Fund to provide additional training for staff.

The Maternity Innovation Funding will go towards a new piece of simulation technology called ‘CTGi’ which replicates a baby’s heart rate pattern during labour. This piece of training technology will be used within clinical areas for both the midwifery and medical teams and supplement more traditional class room tutorials and e-learning programs.

Ann Walker, NNUH Clinical Midwifery Manager said: “The successful bid shows how our department is focussed strongly on improving the quality even further of our services. Being able to use real time fetal monitoring during this training will make the situation more realistic and with the aim of improving outcomes.”

The Maternity Safety Training Fund supports specialist training for doctors, midwives and allied staff within the maternity department.

Dr Ed Prosser-Snelling, NNUH Specialist Registrar and National Medical Director’s Clinical Fellow said: “We have invested a large amount of time and resource in training staff in technical skills.  We plan to build on these foundations and seek to develop team working, communication and advanced decision-making skills, and we are excited to combine classroom-based teaching with up-to-the-minute simulation techniques”.

Frances Bolger, NNUH Head of Women’s and Midwifery services said: “Receiving this funding is fantastic news for the trust. Our maternity team are totally committed to supporting our patients and providing an excellent service. The team also works extremely hard in looking at ways we can support enhanced training for our staff and continue to give excellent patient care”.

Frances added: “We see around 6000 births per year at the hospital and we aspire to become one of the safest units in the country”.

www.nnuh.nhs.uk/our-services/maternity-services/