NHS vow to be ‘best place to give birth’
THE NHS will become “the best place in the world to give birth” under new plans unveiled by the Government today.
More specialist staff will be brought in over the next five years as part of a plan to redesign neonatal services.
A new maternity package to support people through the first few months of parenthood will also be introduced, alongside automatic access to post-natal physiotherapists for the 285,000 women who experience incontinence after giving birth. It is hoped the raft of proposals, paid for by a £102billion cash injection, will also halve the number of stillbirths and maternal and infant deaths, saving 4,000 lives by 2025.
The personal child health record, which parents must carry around for the first four years of a child’s life, will also be digitised for the first time, allowing mothers and fathers to access the famous “red book” from mobile phones.
Next year 100,000 parents will be asked AN IVF expert wants fertility to be put on the school curriculum – to stop couples leaving it too late to conceive, writes Lucy Johnston.
Mrs Geeta Nargund, lead consultant at London’s St George’s Hospital and medical director at Create Fertility, has asked Education Secretary Damien Hinds to include it in sex education lessons.
She says this would reduce the annual £70million bill for fertility treatment on the NHS and spare people infertility in later life.
Professor Nargund said: “Akin to obesity or diabetes, when it comes to infertility, prevention is better than cure.”
to test the e-redbook system and share information securely about their child’s immunisation, growth and development with GPs and hospitals.
The Government also hopes to boost breast-feeding rates across the country by asking maternity services to introduce accredited infant feeding programmes.
It also plans to improve support for critically-ill babies, with an increase in the number of care cots and dedicated care co-ordinators.
Announcing the proposals, health secretary Matt Hancock said he wanted to create an NHS that was “fit for the future”.
He said: “Having a baby is one of the best moments of our lives so I want our NHS to be the best place in world to give birth.
“Today we will take steps to ensure every expectant mother is supported from pregnancy to birth to those critical first few months of parenthood, with a comprehensive package of personalised support.
‘Creating a service fit for the future’ ‘A tangible and crucial difference’
“These measures to improve maternity care, funded by taxpayers as part of the NHS long-term plan, will mean thousands of new families get the best care.” Full details of the plan are to be published next month.
Last night a senior source from the health department said the Government had listened to what people wanted from the NHS and created the plan to make “a tangible and crucial difference”. Previous injections of cash had been absorbed by deficits and layers of management.