New maternity governance team work model

Introduction Traditionally, maternity governance teams comprised of midwives responsible for risk management and O&G governance consultant. Recently, there is significant increase in incidents pertaining to maternity on daily basis with challenges relating to staffing issues including both midwifes, doctors and allied health professionals owing to COVID-19 situation. Hence, it was inevitable to introduce new models pertaining to work need for delivering safe patient care. At Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, we incorporated specialty doctors (trainee & nontrainee) as team members. This led to improved performance in governance and risk management workflow, timely incident investigation and implementation of recommendations. Methodology The doctors were imparted with requisite training and capacity building workshops for building their skills relevant to risk/governance management, 'Datix' system and on investigating clinical incidents. The three inducted doctors worked alongside existing governance team. They were allocated one dedicated planned activity session per week. Their responsibilities included incident risk grading, investigating incidents, weekly perinatal reviews, and compliance audits on established standards. Results Improvement was noted in following areas based on a monthly average of 180 reported incidents over six months. All incidents' investigation time reduced by 74%, within 14 days timeframe. 90% closure of non-high-risk incidents within established time frame. Timely implementation of recommendations-guidelines, SOPs, patient information leaflets and safetybulletins. Completion of audits identified from risk trends. Conclusion Inclusion of doctors in governance process early in their careers would benefit understanding of risk management and external agencies role, underpinning their capability for maternity risk management and patient care, later in their careers.