£340,000 of new electronic fetal monitoring equipment is being installed into the labour wards and obstetric theatres across maternity units at The Royal Oldham Hospital and North Manchester General and will be in place and operational by February 2017.
THE Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs maternity units at The Royal Oldham Hospital and North Manchester General is investing in the the K2 system at both hospitals and will provide a central electronic monitoring and archiving solution for the fetal heart during labour.
The equipment will improve patient care by having an electronic recording at the bedside, and it can also be used remotely and reviewed by other doctors and midwives, so that advice and support can be given if required.
When using the new equipment the heart rate trace is electronically archived, replacing the need for making paper based notes during labour. Extensive training will be given to staff.
The trust has also invested in a new computerised system called the Antenatal Paediatric Alert system . This system promotes appropriate sharing of information between midwives, obstetricians and paediatric staff at The Royal Oldham Hospital and Rochdale Infirmary.
Over the first two months of using the system there has been a 34% increase in data quality over the previous paper based system, and the number of alerts sent has more than doubled compared to the two months before its introduction.
The system will be extended to the maternity departments at North Manchester General Hospital and Fairfield General Hospital in January.
