NHS has announced a launch of first of its kind safety signal system across NHS maternity services.
The “sophisticated new tool” rapidly analyses data being routinely recorded by maternity teams on wards to spot whether there are potential emerging safety issues which need urgent attention and action.
If the system detects a pattern or trend in the data which seems out of the ordinary, it will send out a warning signal indicating a safety check should be urgently carried out on that unit.
Duncan Burton, chief nursing officer for England, said: “It is the first national system of its kind in maternity to be able to signal potential safety issues as they emerge and allow them to be acted on faster by maternity services.
“And it will be the responsibility of staff in maternity services and hospital’s board executives to urgently act on warning signals so problems can’t be ignored or delayed.”
Signals will be traffic-light coded, with amber alerts representing a 95% confidence and red alerts, a 99% confidence that the increase in events is real and needs urgent attention.
The robust online system, named the maternity outcomes signal system (MOSS) is now being rolled out across all maternity services in the country, seven days a week.