MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands offers opportunity to engage with the KEMH Maternity Review

The KEMH is undertaking a full external review of its maternity services in October this year.

The King Edward VII Memorial Hospital (KEMH) is offering the opportunity for those with experience of using maternity services in the Falkland Islands to engage with the upcoming maternity review.

The KEMH is undertaking a full external review of its maternity services in October this year. The review will be conducted by Dr Sophia Stone who is based at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust. Dr Stone is an experienced Consultant Obstetrician who is the Lead for Sussex Maternal Medicine Network as well as an honorary associate professor at Brighton and Sussex Medical School. She will be accompanied by Heather Woods, who is a specialist midwife at the Sussex Maternal Medicine Centre.

As a starting point, the review will assess whether the action plan relating to the care of Baby Aspyn Hercules has been rigorously implemented. Baby Aspyn passed away in October 2023, and the subsequent reviews and Inquest into her death found failings in the care provided, with the Coroner determining that the death was avoidable.

The review will then look at the service more widely, assessing its current status, and identifying future service development and improvement opportunities.

The Terms of Reference for this review can be viewed at:

www.falklands.gov.fk/health/downloads

In order to objectively assess the performance of any service, it is essential that the views of service users are included.

The KEMH has been reviewing how it can collect service user information in relation to maternity services and have initiated a structured feedback form which is now given to all users once their treatment is completed.

However, in the past it is recognised that structured feedback was not collected, and that obtaining feedback through forms is not the best way to engage with all service users.

The KEMH is therefore offering the opportunity for those with experience of using maternity services in the Islands to engage with the review. This will be in two formats as below:

1. Direct feedback to the reviewers

We would like to hear from service users who have used the maternity service primarily over the past five years (although contact with the service further back in time will not be automatically discounted).

The KEMH has set-up an e-mail address that will be available between now and 3rd October, and which will only be available to be accessed by the reviewers; maternityreview@sec.gov.fk

The type of information you may wish to submit is personal to you, but we want to hear from as many services users as possible about their experiences, both good and bad.

Suggestions may include:

 Were you given enough information throughout your pregnancy?

 Did you feel that healthcare professionals asked about your preferences and acted upon them?

 If you were referred overseas, was the rationale for this clearly explained?

 Did you feel supported by the healthcare professionals treating you?

 Did you feel able to raise any concerns you had?

 Did you receive adequate support after birth?

This list is of suggestions only, and we would be glad to hear the feedback that you want to give about the issues that are important to you.

The reviewers will acknowledge receipt of any information they receive, and may ask follow-up questions, or if mutually agreeable, to meet with you when they are in the Islands between 7th and 13th October.

2. Maternity services champion

The reviewers are keen to engage with a representative from the local community to work collaboratively with them to help shape their enquiries, report and recommendations to be ‘fit for the Falklands’, and with service users at its heart.

This role does not require experience in this area, or academic qualifications. All that is required is a passion for improving maternity care and a willingness to meet with the reviewers on a couple of occasions, in addition to having direct experience of using maternity services at the KEMH within the last five years.

The time commitment is not expected to be overly onerous, and the reviewers will try and arrange to meet at mutually convenient times.

If you are interested in an opportunity to help shape the future of maternity care in the Falkland Islands or require more information, please contact the reviewers at: maternityreview@sec.gov.fk