Imperial College Health Partners are supporting north west London maternity services through ‘Human Factors training’ to actively respond to recommendations in The Each Baby Counts Progress Report published this week.
This report, building on the initial 2015 report, cites the contributing role that Human Factors have in clinical safety incidents. It highlights ongoing evidence of lack of situational awareness, fixation error and communication issues across maternity services in England and has recommendations including; ‘all members of the clinical teams need to understand the principles of maintaining situational awareness, a senior member of the team must maintain oversight, a helicopter view of activity during complex technical tasks and there is an ongoing need to embed structured communication tools’.
Through our strong sector partnerships and collaborations ICHP have proudly developed a NW London Maternity Human Factors training faculty. This faculty represents all six maternity services in NW London and are currently delivering Human Factors training, in collaboration with Being Human in Healthcare ltd, to maternity service staff right across the sector. The one day training is raising awareness of the link between Human Factors and patient safety, as well as role modelling and embedding Human Factors teaching at key touchpoints within the clinical day such as ward rounds and handover. The aim is to institutionalise Human Factors in the culture of the north west London maternity services.
Jo Keating, Innovation Delivery Manager, shared progress of this work at The London Maternity Safety Event hosted by the London Maternity Partnership on 14 November 2018.
