Call the Midwife – Epsom and St Helier launch new Pregnancy Advice Line
A new dedicated advice line for pregnant women and mums who have recently given birth, which is staffed by midwives and offers clinical support around the clock, officially launched this week.
The Surrey Heartlands Pregnancy Advice Line is available for women under the care of Epsom and St Helier hospitals, Royal Surrey County Hospital and Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals during pregnancy, labour and following the birth of their baby.
One telephone number will connect to Surrey Heartlands Pregnancy Advice Line, call: 0300 123 5473.
The advice line will:
- Triage calls, assess any risks and signpost women to the most appropriate place for their care, providing easier access for all women to the right maternity care
- Give women access to clinical advice from qualified midwives, 24-hours a day, 7 days a week
- Enhance links with emergency services when required for pregnancy related health issues
- Connect women with midwives who have up-to-date information on the capacity of each maternity unit, enabling the midwives to direct pregnant women to the best place for their care or birth at any time
- Enable health professionals to get fast access to a midwife for advice or triage.
This local Pregnancy Advice Line is part of the national NHS Better Births plan to transform maternity services for pregnant women and families with new born babies, offering personalised care. Surrey Heartlands is one of the first areas in the country to introduce this initiative which covers all aspects of the maternity pathway giving pregnant women, and the families of new born babies a better package of care, more choice and easier access to midwives and other health professionals.
Midwives are based in a bespoke call-centre hub at South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) Head Office in Crawley working in partnership with the SECAmb team.
Vicky Williams, Head of Commissioning Acute Paediatrics and Maternity for Surrey Heartlands CCGs, said: “The new Advice Line is a major step forward in achieving our ‘Better Births’ vision to provide sustainable, high quality health care for women and children; responsive and accessible to local need.”
Epsom and St Helier’s Director of Midwifery and Gynaecology Nursing, Marion Louki, said: “We are delighted to see that the mothers we care for will now have a brand new advice line available to them. To have 24/7 access to advice and support from trained midwives will really help mothers to get the support they need not only from our Trust, but from trusts across the entire Surrey Heartlands area. This is just one of many improvements that we will be continuing to make to the maternity care that we provide at our Trust, ensuring that we maintain our provision of outstanding care to our mothers and babies.”
Surrey Heartlands is one of seven early adopter sites for the Maternity Transformation Programme across England.
