During 2018, all 135 maternity providers in England were asked to assess how they use
digital technologies to support their services. This, for the first time, gave us a detailed
picture of how maternity services across the country are using technology and what they
could do to improve their use of technology. We are publishing a national report and tailored
local reports for each region - and we will be offering information and support to help
services understand what can be done to unlock the real potential of technology in their
service.
We found some key areas in which
maternity services across the country can look to improve their digital capability.Body
Most maternity providers already have a digital leader within their service.
However, the roles and responsibilities of this person vary massively. We need digital
leaders within each service to champion digital change initiatives and bring everyone together,
focussing on the vision for their maternity service. To start your digital journey, organisations
will need to ensure their leader is supported with the right skills and resources.
Service user’s needs should be at the heart of digital change. In order to make successful
changes, service users need to be involved in every step.
Maternity services need to take a good look at what their current digital capabilities
are and where there are any gaps, to identify where next steps. Process mapping is a great
way to highlight the points where digital technology could help improve your service.
This will help you check you’re on the right track and form the basis of future projects
and proposals. It’s important that we ensure that digital
technology supports all parts of the maternity pathway regardless of the location. The national
assessment that was carried out told us that some community midwives are already experiencing
the benefits of digital technology. However, a great number still need help to get there.
The right maternity IT systems need to be in place to support clinicians and women.
The Maternity Digital Maturity Assessment helps us to better understand ‘What a good
maternity system could look like‘ We need to be confident that our maternity
systems have the capabilities to meet the future needs of maternity services
Better use of data is essential to uncover a true picture, guide continuous improvements
and measure the benefits being realised from change initiatives. The maternity DMA highlights
how digital technology can supply information in new ways to help benefit maternity services.
We need to share best practice and evidence to ensure any future change initiatives are
focused on obtaining the benefits.
Understanding best practice and by learning
from others experiences is a simple way to understand what to do and what not to do.
By sharing the latest advice and guidance we will be able to see that new digital initiatives
are on track to deliver the right benefits for services and users.
Over the coming years, the NHS maternity programme will be working to improve maternity services
with digital technology by working with maternity networks and forums run by the NHS. These
groups help bring together local and national stakeholders to collaborate and share requirements.
To find out more, please visit: www.england.nhs.uk/mat-transformation