Strong clinical leadership in new maternity programme

Maternity services continue to improve thanks to strong clinical leadership by health professionals.

Health Minister Tony Ryall is today visiting Bay of Plenty midwives to discuss the Maternity Quality and Safety workshops that have taken place across the country over the past few months.

“Safer maternity services are a priority for the Government – that's why we’ve put an extra $103 million over four years into improving maternity services.

“The workshops are part of the Maternity Quality and Safety programme, launched last year, which aims to ensure women and babies have the same high standard of care throughout New Zealand.

“A key part of the programme is bringing community and hospital maternity professionals together to discuss how they can lead and implement the programme to improve the quality and safety of maternity services in their region.

“We're seeing midwives, obstetricians, GPs, anaesthetists working together in a way we've not seen before. This is a great practical example of clinical leadership.

Initiatives being implemented by each district health board under the Maternity Quality and Safety programme include:

• new maternity standards to guide planning, funding and monitoring
• new referral guidelines for routine and emergency transfers of mothers between midwives and specialists,
• clinical indicators for benchmarking by district health board and facility.

During the visit, the Minister will wish the Bay of Plenty midwives a happy International Midwives Day for tomorrow, 5 May.

“Midwifery attracts a lot of media attention particularly when things go wrong. The College, Council and midwives have done a great deal in changing midwifery care in New Zealand over the past five years, and I acknowledge their hard work.