SWSPHN Antenatal Shared Care Program

South West Sydney Local Health District (SWSLHD) Maternity Services is undertaking one of the largest scale redesign projects ever attempted within the history of the Local Health District. The Antenatal Redesign Project is seeking to change a 100 year old system of antenatal care.

The overall purpose of the project is to provide safe, equitable care that is accessible to all women and broaden the implementation of first trimester screening. Three working parties have been established and each include representatives from the General Practitioners of South West Sydney. The first working party is focused on consumer information and engagement, with a priority on women receiving timely and culturally specific information. The second working party has an emphasis on the referral processes, with the last working party focusing on the coordination of first trimester screening for all women in SWSLHD.

The consumer information and engagement working party wants to hear directly from all general practitioners. Focus group sessions have been set aside to hear from you, for you to provide your thoughts on antenatal care, and how to improve systems and processes between GP’s and SWSLHD hospitals.

Should you have any questions about the focus groups or would like to be involved and cannot attend a session, please contact Nicole Grieg- Antenatal Redesign Project Manager- via Nicole.grieg@health.nsw.gov.au or 0419 440 943.

Booking in My Pregnancy (BiMP) is an online questionaire that women complete to register their pregnancy with their local maternity service within South West Sydney Local Health District. Women complete the questionaire via their computer or personal device, and at completion a PDF summary is generated and automatically sent to their local hospital.

The woman can access the questionaire via scanning the QR code or through the link.

The online questionaire facilitates the identification of risk factors that the woman may have which can impact their pregnancy.

The questionaire can be completed in English, Arabic or Vietnamese. An English PDF version is sent to the hospital automatically. From there the hospital will contact the woman to book her first appointment.

The address that the woman enters into the questionaire is geo-locked to that location, and the PDF summary is sent to the hospital local to that nominated address.

There is an option for the GP to complete either the questionaire on behalf of the woman or a referral via the BiMP landing page.

All information collected via the questionaire is kept securely on the South West Sydney Local Health District computer servers.

Recommendations have changed for syphillis screening during pregnancy following an increase in case numbers across NSW. Cases have been reported even amongst population groups that were not previously considered to be high risk. A safety notice has been distributed to NSW Health, advising clinicians to screen antenatal women twice during pregnancy. The recommeded times for screening during pregnancy are at initial pregnancy screening and repeated again at 26-28 weeks gestation. The safety notice can viewed in full via the Clinical Excellence Commission.

John Hunter Hospital is offering a CPD opportunity on common gynaecology and gynae-oncology topics on November 4th, 2022.

The study day is available to attend both face to face or virtually.

Topics included are:

• hyperemesis
• ovarian cysts
• ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome
• termination of pregnancy
• pelvic pain
• urogynaecology
• gynae-oncology topics

Registrations close 28th October. To register contact: Kathryn.Bourke@health.nsw.gov.au or Anne.Mellon@health.nsw.gov.au.

Australian College of Midwives are offering a free Prenatal Screening and Down syndrome eLearning course

At the end of this eLearning course, you will be able to:
1. Explain what Down syndrome is;
2. Describe what informed consent is, and how this relates to prenatal screening;
3. Outline the screening and diagnosis options, and discuss the difference between screening and diagnosis;
4. Explore how best to communicate with women about prenatal screening, including how and who to refer families to, to support informed decision making; and
5. Consider how midwives can best support and care for women and their families surrounding prenatal screening, options and decision-making in a way which respects diversity as well as a woman’s right to make an informed choice.

This course is free to access for all and equivalent to 1 CPD point

Follow this link

FREE ELEARNING COURSE

South Western Sydney Primary Health Network and South Western Sydney Local Health District are working together to enhance diabetes care in the area.

Diabetes Case Conference Clinic Days are now available for GPs in South West Sydney.

• Case conferencing can assist GPs to support patients who present with diabetes (Type 2).
• Case conferencing with an Endocrinologist in collaboration with the patients GP will provide robust clinical care and decrease admissions to the hospital
• Prior verbal or written consent from patient is required.

An Endocrinologist and Diabetes Educator will attend your practice for the day, where 10 eligible patients will each receive a 40-minute case conference. A follow up half day will occur 6 months later, where each patient will have a 20-minute case conference. Education will be provided, and you will be supported to run quality improvement initiatives for Diabetes.

What are the Benefits to My Practice?

• Access to billing for MBS chronic disease items for case conferencing, GP management plans, Team Care Arrangements and items of Diabetes Cycles of Care, as eligible.
• Diabetes Specialist service without extra cost to the patient
• Reduce waiting time for patients to access specialist care
• Increased patient satisfaction with a comprehensive, integrated, and interdisciplinary management approach in the one location

For more information, or to discuss booking a Case Conference Clinic day, please visit https://healthchat.swsphn.com.au/diabetes-special-interest-group?preview=true or contact Kathryn.dovey@swsphn.com.au

COVID-19 vaccination decision guide for women who are pregnant, breastfeeding or planning pregnancy

• Updated on 29 April 2022 to include:
  • Updated information on Nuvaxovid (Novavax)
  • Booster dose information has been updated to include people aged 16 and 17 years
  • Updated information on vaccine safety and effectiveness in pregnant individuals and infants has been included.
• Important point (page 6):
  • Can COVID-19 vaccines be given at the same time as influenza or other vaccines?
    • Yes. Evidence demonstrates that co-administering (i.e. given at the same time) a COVID-19 vaccine and an influenza vaccine is safe and produces good immune responses to both vaccines.
    • COVID-19 vaccines can also be co-administered with other vaccines, such as the pertussis vaccine, if required. There are limited data, however, on using COVID-19 vaccines at the same time as other vaccines.
    • It is important to balance the need for co-administration of vaccines with delivering vaccines on separate visits, as there is the potential for an increase in mild to moderate adverse events when more than one vaccine is given at the same time. It can also make it harder to attribute potential adverse events to specific vaccines.

The ANSC exclusion was updated on the 04/04/2022 .

The changes made are solely regarding COVID-19 in pregnancy and now allows many of our COVID-19 recovered women to participate in ANSC

Included/can participate in ANSC

• Women who contracted COVID-19 <14/40
• Women who experienced asymptomatic/mild COVID-19 in pregnancy not requiring admission
  • These women will require a post recovery O&G review with their referral hospital antenatal clinic before returning to ANSC +/- 3^rd trimester scan and any additional hospital-based visits explained and scheduled as decided upon at this consult.

  • At this consult the Obstetric team need to discuss:

    • the importance of maternal awareness of fetal movements as per GL2021_019 Care pathway for women concerned about fetal movements
    • awareness of signs and symptoms of pre-eclampsia
    • how to access care outside of the standard pathway if the woman has any concerns.

Excluded/can not participate in ANSC

• Women who contracted COVID-19 >14/40 that suffered moderate, serious or critical COVID-19 (requiring hospital admission) >14/40

Please ensure all your COVID-19 recovered women have attended an O&G review post isolation before returning to ANSC. If any of your women suffered moderate, serious or critical COVID-19 (requiring hospital admission) >14/40 please direct them back to the hospital antenatal clinic for ongoing care and management.

Liverpool Hospital Genetics department has recently updated their referral form into the service.

Could we kindly ask that you discard any old referral forms and replace with the December 2021 update.

With the new referral form also comes amended referral pathways. Please review the referral instruction document to ensure you are following the new pathways.

The primary objective of this procedure is to assist the Antenatal Shared Care (ANSC) Operations Group to identify and immediately address feedback or concerns raised about a General Practitioner (GP) with regards to the provision of antenatal share care. The procedure aims to ensure the GP reaches and maintains a satisfactory standard of compliance to the ANSC program in South West Sydney Local Health District (SWSLHD). To view the procedure, click here.