Pregnant women who receive their maternity care from either Birmingham Women’s Hospital, Heartlands Hospital, Good Hope Hospital or Solihull Hospital will be the first benefit from the innovation.

More than 18,000 women give birth across the Birmingham and Solihull Local Maternity System.

The single maternity record will enable clinical information to be shared between the four hospitals run by Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Foundation Trust (BWC) and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB), helping to make care safer for women and their babies.

Additional benefits of the system include a reduction in the duplication of work with staff only needing to input clinical information once. Women will also find it better too, as they will only be asked for information once even if they are booked for their care to be shared between Trusts.

Sandra Orton, Divisional Director of Operations/Head of Midwifery at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The launch of the single maternity record is great news and shows that working across organisational boundaries reaps rewards.  It is now so much easier for our staff to have all of the information they need to make a clinical decision, at the touch of their fingertips.”

Rachel Carter, Head of Midwifery and Associate Director of Nursing at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said:  “We are thrilled that the single maternity record has been launched across our local maternity system and we are confident that it will bring significant advantages to care.” 

The launch of the single maternity record is the latest in the digital transformation led by Birmingham and Solihull United Maternity & Newborn Partnership (BUMP). It will link to GPs and health visitors who have read-only access via a maternity portal and, most importantly, women can access their own information on a secure mobile app.

David Melbourne, Senior Responsible Officer for BUMP and Deputy Chief Executive of Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This initiative will really make a difference to the information that women and their families have.  For GPs, midwives and obstetricians the information that it will give them across the care pathway will be better and will ensure that care is joined more up, driving better quality and outcomes.”

It is hoped to extend the single maternity record to other maternity providers across the region in the future.