RCOG Releases Standards In Maternity And Gynaecology, UK

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Pregnancy / Obstetrics
Article Date: 02 Jul 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) releases two important documents focusing on women's healthcare.

The documents are:

- Standards for Maternity Care. A report from a working party, jointly produced by the RCOG, and Royal College of Anaesthetists, Royal College of Midwives, and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

- Standards for Gynaecology, A report of a working party.

The maternity standards contain 30 individual standards covering the different stages of motherhood. For the first time, there are standards from preconception to the transition into parenthood in one document. The gynaecology standards comprise 20 individual standards covering a wide range of conditions and treatment, including: miscarriage, infertility, gynaecological cancers and menopause.

It has taken two years to develop these standards and material was drawn from existing documents published by national organisations such as NICE, the British Association of Perinatal Medicine and not-for-profit organisations such as BLISS and SANDS. The RCOG consulted widely on the gynaecology standards with input from the relevant professional medical societies. Stakeholder participation in the maternity standards included organisations such as the National Childbirth Trust, the Healthcare Commission, healthcare commissioners and other users of the service.

The strength of the standards is that the focus is on women and patient care. It provides indicators on the desired outcomes, and how to audit these in an appropriate manner. The RCOG would like maternity and gynaecological services across the UK to adopt these standards in the care of women to enhance the quality of care and to address issues of inequality. NHS commissioners and managers should follow the recommendations in their service and workforce planning.

Professor Sabaratnam Arulkumaran, RCOG President, said "We are very proud of these standards. For the first time, we have a robust framework for women-centred care in a complete package.

"Now, policy makers, healthcare providers and NHS commissioners need to consider how they will implement these standards.

"I would like to thank those who have worked tirelessly to bring these standards to fruition. This is shining example of multidisciplinary teamwork between the different specialties and groups who are, after all, working toward the same goal, for the benefit of women."

Mr Tahir Mahmood, gynaecology lead on the report said, "We have never really had such a comprehensive range of standards in gynaecology before and this is a real leap forward since it provides doctors with best practice and information about the treatment options for women.

"In the 60th anniversary of the NHS, this is the RCOG's birthday gift to women's healthcare."

Miss Heather Mills and Professor Suzanne Truttero were co-chairs of the working party. Professor Truttero said, "A key tool for maternity service commissioners has now been streamlined and rationalised by the publication of 30 standards which follow the pathway that women experience. These were compiled from 800 existing standards from 50 publications making it so much easier for commissioners and health professionals to access regarding maternity standards.

"Not only does this ground breaking work save key policy makers, commissioners and health professionals valuable time and resources, it also demonstrates the close and collaborative way health partners are increasingly working together to deliver the Government's maternity agenda".

Sue Eardley, Strategy Manager from the Healthcare Commission said, "These standards are a great step forward in providing clarity for trusts, commissioners and the public on what a safe, quality maternity service should look like. Their development, building on existing guidance and research, has been a good example of partnership working and the Healthcare Commission is keen to build on these partnerships in order to reduce, as far as possible, any overlaps in the inspection or assessment of maternity services.

"Our maternity service review in England found some wide variations between trusts in the levels of care provided including some excellent services. These standards will assist us, and our successor body (from April 2009), in any future assessment of trusts and clarify for PCT commissioners the levels of service they can expect local women to receive. "

Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists