Improving birth outcomes and reducing medical litigation costs are the aims behind the new Electronic Fetal Monitoring (eFM) project, launched today by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) and e-Learning for Healthcare.
Approximately 300,000 pregnant women undergo electronic intrapartum fetal monitoring (cardiotocography, CTG) in the UK annually. It is used to monitor the fetal heartbeat and uterine contractions.
Medical litigation costs in this area are on the increase. Between 2008 and 2009, £769 million was paid out by the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST) in settled claims and obstetric litigation was responsible for nearly 60% of this.
The majority of obstetric litigation claims arise because of neuro-developmental disability in children following substandard monitoring of the fetus and management in labour. Improved education in this area will reduce mistakes made by health professionals. When abnormal features are present, obstetricians and midwives should be competent to recognise and interpret CTGs correctly and decide on the appropriate management.
The eFM programme is aimed at trainees, consultants and midwives and can be undertaken at home enabling practitioners to improve their skills in their own time.
The programme has two components: a knowledge based interactive tutorial section with topics on the impact of electronic fetal monitoring on labour outcomes and interventions to improve the CTG and a case study section enabling the learner to practise their skills in a virtual labour ward.
Professor David James, eFM project lead, said:
“This new programme will enhance the training and performance of staff resulting in fewer serious complications happening such as stillbirth and disability, which in turn will lead to less medical litigation costs in obstetrics.
“Easy access to online, real-life cases will be a significant enhancement to the portfolio of training resources currently available. We hope the programme will result in more confident, experienced, competent and safer healthcare teams.”
Project Champion, Professor Sir Sabaratnam Arulkumaran added:
“We hope this new programme will result in improved decision making during labour and monitoring of the fetus. Greater training will lessen the chance of a neurologically damaged baby, a stillbirth or an unnecessary operative delivery and the resulting emotional and financial consequences for the child, the mother, the family, the staff and the NHS.”
Frances Day-Stirk, Director of Learning, Research and Practice Development at the RCM, said:
“The multidisciplinary programme begins with the importance of intermittent ausculation, highlighting its importance, knowing when to use electronic fetal monitoring and will enhance interpretation by those providing care to labouring women. We hope the programme will improve communication between healthcare professionals and women and their partners and lead to improvements in practice.”
The programme will be officially launched on 18 May. Attendees will have the opportunity to see the programme and have a go themselves. There will also be presentations on why the programme is needed, an overview of the whole project and what the implications are for obstetricians and midwives.
The eFM programme will be available to NHS staff from the 4 July on the National Learning Management System (NLMS) and it can be accessed from their workplace or their home. NHS staff can register for access to the programme via the NLMS or via e-Learning for Healthcare.
Ends
A podcast by Professor David James, eFM project lead, in which he talks about the background to the project and how this will help improve birth outcomes can be streamed below:
For all media enquiries please contact Naomi Weston on nweston@rcog.org.uk
For more information about the eFM programme please contact Navin Jaitly on 020 7772 6460 or njaitly@rcog.org.uk.
Notes
e-Learning for Healthcare (e-LfH) is a Department of Health programme in partnership with the NHS and professional bodies providing high quality content free of charge for the training of the NHS workforce across the UK.
e-LfH is now in the process of delivering over 30 e-learning projects in partnership with medical Royal Colleges and other professional healthcare organisations.
