Postnatal care is an area for serious concern, with readmission of women and infants following discharge having increased significantly over the past decade. A reduction in average postnatal stays together with care delivered by many members of a fragmented multidisciplinary team disallowing full timely assessments of health needs, are reasons cited for this. There is a disjuncture between process, policy and health outcomes in maternity and neonatal outcomes. While there is evidence indicating what needs to be done to reduce mortality and morbidity and improve outcomes, more is required in relation to how this is done; central to this is innovation. Currently, the NHS does not have sufficient useful data on the extent to which frontline workers are delivering needed interventions, or their short and long-term impacts. Unscheduled maternity and neonatal admissions are supposedly a key indicator of the quality of maternity care. An understanding of why these incidents occur could generate significant cost reductions at a time of severe austerity and enhance the quality of care and safety for women and their infants.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/6511 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Bewley, S., McIntosh, Bryan |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article |
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