Why the study?
Medical problems during pregnancy are the leading cause of UK maternal mortality, requiring timely access to services, trained physicians, and locally agreed guidance.
An audit of UK hospitals reveals significant deficiencies in the provision of specialized acute medical care and guidelines for pregnant women.
Services for pregnant women in acute medicine fall short of recommendations; leaves open optimal implementation strategies pending prospective evaluation.
BACKGROUND: Medical problems during pregnancy are the leading cause of maternal mortality in the UK. Pregnant women often present through acute services to the medical team, requiring timely access to appropriate services, physicians trained to manage medical problems in pregnancy, with locally agreed guidance available. METHODS: Data were collected through the Society for Acute Medicine Benchmarking Audit, a national audit of service delivery and patient care in acute medicine over a 24 hour period. RESULTS: One hundred and thirty hospitals participated: 5.5% had an acute medicine consultant trained in obstetric medicine, and 38% of hospitals had a named lead for maternal medicine. This was not related to hospital size (p = 0.313). Sixty-four units had local guidelines for medical problems in pregnancy; 43% had a local guideline for venous thromboembolism in pregnancy. Centres with a named lead had more guidelines (p = 0.019). CONCLUSION: Current provision of services within acute medicine for pregnant women does not meet national recommendations.
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Atkin et al. (2020) studied this question.
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