Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (Northumbria) is one of eight acute trusts within the North East and North Cumbria ICS, which between them welcomes over 22,000 babies every year.

Now all trusts within the ICS are live with BadgerNet Maternity, meaning they benefit from access to BadgerNet Single Pregnancy Record (SPR). This enables all trusts within the region to have access to joined-up maternal care.

For Northumbria, the SPR has made the previously complex task of managing pregnant people moving from one trust to another much easier. With all organisations who sign up to the SPR being able to view and contribute to a patients record; neighbouring organisations can provide valuable insights and context into patient history.

SPR In Action: Safeguarding

A pregnant woman attended Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust in advanced labour. She had not previously booked with Northumbria for the birth and on arrival gave a brief history and requested a prompt discharge. 

Due to the functionality of the SPR, staff at Northumbria were able to access the woman's record as soon as she was admitted, quickly discovering she had originally been booked at a neighbouring trust to give birth and had previously had two children placed in local authority placements due to concerns around their care. Given the patient’s history, it was likely that this baby would also be subject to a child protection plan from birth. As a result, the clinicians were able to alert the local authority.

Gayle Thompson, Lead Digital Midwife at Northumbria, explained: “It was all documented immediately in the Single Pregnancy Record, including the overall management and the actions that need to be taken when this baby was born.” 

“It could have been very different had we not had the history of the safeguarding within that family. So, a really, really important aspect of the Single Pregnancy Record is the fact that you can see all the safeguarding information shared between the trusts.”  

Facilitating Seamless Communication

BadgerNet SPR has significantly helped staff at Northumbria to facilitate seamless communication between different BadgerNet sites. For clinicians it has meant they can access all relevant patient information whether they were initially registered there or not, ensuring they have the most up-to-date information in the hospital and community. This capability has enabled clinicians to make informed decisions promptly, improving the overall quality of care and ensuring that patients receive appropriate interventions. The SPR also successfully eliminated delays and complications associated with paper records, ensuring continuity of care, whilst also reducing patient anxiety.

“We like the fact that it enables good communication and real time decision making. One of the very top key benefits to Northumbria is that the SPR gives us excellent visibility of sensitive and safeguarding information. I can't stress how highly we think of this benefit.” Gayle added.

‘It can save time for clinicians and patients because they don't have to retell the story time and time again, especially at different trusts. And it's particularly important and vital for those high-risk pregnancies and for those that will have to move between trusts based on their clinical needs.’

Improving the User Experience

The SPR has notably improved the user experience for both patients and staff at Northumbria whilst promoting personalisation of care. With clinicians being able to review patient records before scheduled appointments, they are well-prepared and can focus on the patient's current needs rather than administrative tasks. This preparation contributes to more meaningful appointments where the individual does not need to explain their history as it has already been documented, enhancing patient satisfaction and care quality.

Northumbria’s feedback from patients supports this, as Gayle mentions “the feedback we received when we went live with BadgerNet was that the pregnant people really loved the fact that their pregnancy information can be seen by lots of different people involved in their care.”

Break Glass Functionality

The implementation of BadgerNet Maternity at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has also developed significant improvements regarding data security within maternity care. Clinicians at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust must explicitly ‘Break Glass’ on the record to view the information as part of a fully auditable governance process, allowing patient information to be stored safely.

Next Steps

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is an excellent example of how BadgerNet Single Pregnancy Record can promote seamless communication between other sites as well as a complete view of records. By realising these benefits, Northumbria are able to operate with higher efficiency and provide more patients with safer care.

This is supported by the Great North Care Record (GNCR), a collaboration of health and social care organisations across the North East and Cumbria region. The integrated care record provides 3.2 million people with care across the region. As Northumbria is now interconnected with the other trusts in the ICS via the SPR, they can now use the GNCR to provide primary care (GPs) with access to BadgerNet data from the whole ICS.

Northumbria’s maternity care continues to go from strength to strength, ranking among the best in the country. As a result, Northumbria has been featured in an outliers report for 2023 for its performance being ‘better than expected’, because the proportion of women who answered positively to questions about their care during labour and birth, on the ward after the birth, ‘was significantly above the trust average’.[1]

If you would like to find out more about BadgerNet Maternity and the Single Pregnancy Record, you can watch our latest webinar where you can hear more from Northumbria and see our solution in action.

To learn more about the Great North Care Record (GNCR) as well as how the North East and North Cumbria Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS), have delivered the ‘first of type’ integration using BadgerNet watch this short video.

[1] National survey reveals positive maternity experience for patients at Northumbria Healthcare : Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust