Health chiefs are planning to improve maternity services, prompted by an official report and the rising cost of premiums paid to a “clinical negligence” compensation scheme.
They aim to offer more choice to expectant mothers across Brighton and Hove and the surrounding area – and more of a focus on mothers’ mental health.
In the next five to six years they are keen to halve the number of “perinatal deaths” – those happening between 22 weeks into a pregnancy and within a week of birth.
At the moment the perinatal mortality rate in Brighton and Hove is 5.53 for every 1,000 live births – or more than one a month.
The national average of 5.64 is slightly higher than the Brighton and Hove figure but in Greece it is 4.8, in Estonia it is 3.4, in Finland 3.2 and in Japan 2.4.
Health chiefs’ plans were set out in a report to the Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) at a meeting at the Brighthelm Centre yesterday (Wednesday 3 July).
The governing body meeting was told that the Local Maternity System Plan spelt out how NHS bosses in Sussex and East Surrey would deliver “the national vision for maternity services”.
The national vision was set out in a report called Better Births – A Five-Year Forward View. The report followed the National Maternity Review carried out by former Brighton Health Authority chair Baroness Cumberlege, also known as Julia Cumberlege.
It called for maternity care to become “safer, more personalised, kinder, professional and more family friendly”.
At the CCG meeting, Maggie Keating, the Sussex and East Surrey Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) urgent and emergency care programme director, said: “We need to provide a service that is kind – a new emerging word in the NHS – professional and safe.
“It builds on previous policies about giving women a personal choice.
“We are building on a really good foundation when we look at our maternity services. In the region we have two that are outstanding and two that are good.
“Our mortality rate is below the national average. That sounds great but we know when we compare with our European colleagues there is so much more we can do.”
Maternity services at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton currently have a good rating from the Care Quality Commission (CQC), with the service’s effectiveness ranked as outstanding. More than 3,000 babies are born there each year.
But health chiefs want to reduce the number of babies stillborn, dying shortly after birth or living with expensive long-term conditions.
