February 2024
Striving to raise standards for new parents
Our Maternity Network has been improving services for mums and birthing people for the past 11 years and it is great to see its work featuring in the newsletter again this month.
One of our original Networks when we were launched in 2013, the ideas and commitment of our clinicians and support team have helped to embed the Saving Babies Lives Bundle, Each Baby Counts escalation framework and the Equity and Equality Plan, all working towards improving the outcomes for our mums/birthing people and babies.
The team, working with the Greater Manchester and Eastern Cheshire Local Maternity and Neonatal System and a company called Anya, will soon be launching a free-to-use breastfeeding app. And we send congratulations to a Bolton midwife, Waheeda Abbas, who has won a prestigious national award.
There is still much to do to improve care in Greater Manchester, but we are confident we will get there with the hard work of our brilliant maternity clinicians.
Also, in the February issue you can read about:
- Diabetes Network: details about its next event and support for people managing their diabetes during Ramadan
- Children and Young People Network: a Q&A with one of our epilepsy clinical leads
- Respiratory Network: new work to manage medication for sufferers of interstitial lung disease and improving diagnostic tests for asthma and COPD
- Neurorehabilitation and Stroke Network: improving patient and carer groups and services for people with multiple sclerosis
- Cardiac Network: a new event to discuss peripheral arterial disease.
Thanks again for your interest in our work.
Best wishes
 
Free app to support breastfeeding
Every new parent in Greater Manchester will soon have premium access to an app which will give them 24/7 support with infant feeding, alongside other parenting support.
Called Anya, the software allows women/birthing people to use a suite of 3D animations to help them successfully breastfeed their child (see screenshots of the app above).
They can also access 24/7 evidence-based support through Anya AI, the app’s virtual supporter, and they can speak to an expert direct if they need more help.
From March 18, the premium version of the app will be commissioned for parents and healthcare professionals, at no cost to them.
This has been funded thanks to the collaboration between the Greater Manchester and Eastern Cheshire Local Maternity and Neonatal System and Anya, who have been awarded funding from the Small Business Research Initiative Healthcare.
The project will use digital innovation to address health inequalities in maternity care.
One new mum outside the city region who has used the app, Mandy, from Preston, said: “I have found the Anya AI assistant incredibly helpful in terms of understanding recovery, and the 3D models have given me a really clear idea of how to ensure a good latch in various positions which has made me feel more confident about breast feeding.”
Eileen Stringer, clinical lead midwife for the Greater Manchester and Eastern Cheshire Strategic Clinical Networks, said: “We hope thousands of women will find this app really useful and help to reduce the stress of breastfeeding, especially if it isn’t working out initially.
“The app will act like a friendly midwife at home, answering questions and using the latest research and evidence to help them.
“We know that for some mums breastfeeding can be really difficult through no fault of their own. This app will provide them with that extra support, answering questions and even allowing them to chat directly with an expert.”
Emilie House, client success lead at Anya, said: "We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with the Greater Manchester and Eastern Cheshire teams, and to support families across the region.
“We are particularly dedicated to developing our app to support parents experiencing health inequality; something we know is close to the heart of health professionals in the area as well. This project will enable us to take great steps to improve access to evidence-based care for all families."
The premium version of the app is funded for free to all new mums in Greater Manchester and Eastern Cheshire for the duration of their pregnancy, plus three months from the date their child is born. Some features on the app are free to use, but premium access will allow people to use all the support tools.
Working in Greater Manchester? Please look out for the upcoming opportunities to support the roll-out: virtual familiarisation sessions and live demonstrations will be scheduled throughout March. If you’d like to be added to Anya’s circulation list for more project updates, submit your details here.
A Bolton midwife has been presented with a coveted national award for their significant and outstanding contribution in their everyday work.
Waheeda Abbas (pictured left), a specialist liaison midwife at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust and lead midwife at North West Genomic Medicine Service Alliance, won the Silver Chief Midwifery Officer Award.
Waheeda was nominated for developing a midwifery network across the North West to share the value of genomics across their wider workforce communities.
Genomics is the study of the genes in our DNA, and Waheeda’s remit has been to educate midwives across the North West about using genomics and its benefits in current medicine.
Waheeda has also focused a lot of her time working with ethnic minorities, who can typically be underserved by healthcare services.
Waheeda, who is also lead midwife at North West Genomic Medicine Service Alliance, said: “I could never have imagined achieving this and I was honoured to receive the Silver Chief Midwifery Officer Award.
“I love being a midwife and I am so passionate about improving outcomes for our pregnant people and their families.”
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Maternity events
Click on the links below to find out more details about these maternity events.
Annual Preterm Birth Meeting
15 March 2024 9:00am – 1:00pm
Annual Preterm Birth Meeting | NHS England Events
Annual Perinatal Loss Study Day
15 March 2024 12:30pm – 5:00pm
Annual Perinatal Loss Study Day | NHS England Events
Latest event to improve care in Greater Manchester
The Diabetes team is inviting people to reserve their places at its next network meeting event in April.
The day aims to build on the success of the Greater Manchester Diabetes Clinical Network event in October last year and is open to all health professionals who work with people living with, or at risk of, diabetes, including primary, secondary, community care and commissioning teams, and voluntary sector stakeholders.
The day will include key-note speakers and workshop discussions on diabetes strategy, implementation, pathways and services. Planned content will include:
- Prevention and population management approach to prioritising diabetes
- Key indicators for improving diabetes service delivery
- Update on emerging GM diabetes data and intelligence
- Diabetes technology and self-management support
- MyWay Diabetes research findings
- Collaboration with wider CVD and prevention workstreams
The event offers the opportunity to meet colleagues from across the Greater Manchester system and there will be lots of valuable networking opportunities throughout the day.
It is being held on Wednesday, April 24, 1pm-5pm, at 3 Piccadilly Place, Manchester, M1 3BN.
The full programme will follow shortly. Places are limited, so please reserve a place as soon as possible.
Please contact Michelle Davies via michelle.davies9@nhs.net if you have any queries regarding booking the event.
The Network is supporting partner My Way Digital Health’s latest campaign to give people living with diabetes the tools they need to stay happy and healthy during Ramadan.
The organisation is offering free online courses, which include live Q&A sessions, and are delivered in English, Arabic and Malay.
There is also a course for healthcare professionals, which is delivered in English only.
The Network will be working with the Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership to promote the courses on social media in the run-up to Ramadan.
The courses are run by My Way Digital Health in partnership with the Diabetes and Ramadan International Alliance.
This year, Ramadan is expected to begin in the evening on Sunday, March 10, and end on Tuesday, April 9.
Epilepsy lead Q&A
This month, one of our new epilepsy clinical leads, Debbie Garner (pictured right), answers questions about her role.
Debbie works in partnership with epilepsy clinical lead Dr Amy Wilson.
Q: What is your career background and what is your current job title (outside the SCNs)?
I qualified as a registered sick children’s nurse in 2001.
Post qualification, I worked on a general paediatric ward for 3 years. In 2001 I started working in Salford as a Children’s Community Nurse.
I took on many roles within the CCNT caring for children with acute medical needs, chronic illnesses, long term ventilation, palliative and end of life care needs. I successfully completed my community specialist practitioner degree in 2009.
In 2014, I took on the role of a family nurse within the Family Nurse Partnership team, supporting first time mums under the age of 20.
I missed my clinical role and took the opportunity to apply for the epilepsy specialist nurse post and secured this in 2016.
I have been in this role for the past 7 years and have qualified as a nurse prescriber.
Q: Why did you decide to apply to work with the SCNs?
I applied for the clinical lead role, with my colleague Dr Amy Wilson.
We are both extremely passionate about the epilepsy services and how we can support other areas and implement change to meet the needs of the patients across Greater Manchester.
Q: What are you hoping to achieve with your work with the SCNs?
I would like to achieve co-ordinated working across GM, including single pathways/processes for all areas to follow, to ensure an equitable approach across Greater Manchester.
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Q: What do you think Greater Manchester does well for children and young people living with epilepsy?
We have great colleagues who are all enthusiastic about making changes for our population of children and young people.
Colleagues are supportive and willing to share good practice across the network and there are excellent links with tertiary colleagues at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.
(Pictured above: Debbie, left, with epilepsy clinical lead Dr Amy Wilson).
Q: What do you think Greater Manchester could do better for children and young people with epilepsy?
I think there could be better access to paediatric units and areas that will perform paediatric investigations. This would reduce the waiting times greatly!
Q: What do you do to relax outside of your clinical work
In my (little) spare time, I enjoy going to the gym and walking!
I enjoy walking my dog, listening to a good podcast.
I am kept very busy with my son who plays football, cricket and swims for Bolton…these things give me very little free time but I love watching him!
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Team helping to create pathways to medication
Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) is an umbrella term for a large group of chronic scarring lung conditions.
The scarring causes stiffness of the lungs and reduces oxygen delivery into the blood stream.
Life expectancy with ILD can vary greatly, but for the majority it is a life limiting condition with a prognosis of 3 to 5 years.
New anti-fibrotic drugs have come to market in recent years, which offer a modest survival benefit, which have been under the remit of NHS England to deliver via specialised centres.
This specialist commissioning will be devolved to the Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board (ICB) in April 2024. In preparation for this, the Network started meetings in October last year to agree the optimal patient centred pathway across Greater Manchester for patients from community to specialist care.
Meetings included relevant stakeholders from ILD services, primary and secondary care, mental health services and pharmacy.
The aim of the meetings was to describe the ideal patient pathway, reduce inequity of access and provide care as close to home as possible, as well as to provide a governance structure within the ICB for these high-cost drugs. The Network also wanted to ensure that the basic offer of vaccination, smoking cessation support, pulmonary rehabilitation, mental health support, social prescribing and palliation would be met.
Progress to date includes a baseline of current Greater Manchester provision and a resource bank for sharing best practice, which includes standard operating procedures, pathways, surveys etc.
In the March meeting, the team plans to look at the structure, processes and clinicians necessary for the ILD MDT meeting.
As with ILD, in April this year, severe asthma specialist drug commissioning will be devolved to the ICB.
In preparation for this the Network had its first meeting in February, bringing together a group to inform, update, discuss and support the development and delivery of asthma services and pathways across the Greater Manchester footprint, starting with severe asthma.
The group will agree a common patient centred pathway for severe asthma across GM, share best practice and support continued learning.
Boost for diagnostic training
Spirometry and Fractional Exhaled Nitric Oxide (FeNO) are diagnostic tests for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma which are predominantly carried out in primary care.
In March 2020, these tests were paused due to the risks associated with COVID-19 airborne particles, however, the Network has been working with the Greater Manchester system to restart services.
Over the last two years, the team has progressed from hardly any spirometry provision in primary care to some provision now being offered in all 10 GM localities.
The Network has produced guidance, facilitated staff training and worked closely with locality colleagues to implement various local service delivery models.
Although variation remains, the number of tests done is increasing, helping to reduce the pandemic backlog.
The Network is also working on how Greater Manchester will ensure that all spirometry procedures are quality assured.
Following the inclusion of spirometry and FeNO in the Greater Manchester Primary Care Blueprint, published in October 2023, work is underway to explore options for a city region model of delivery from April 2025.
Heeding the patient and carer voice
Despite the festive break, it has been a busy month in stroke and neurorehabilitation care in Greater Manchester.
Hearing and heeding the patient and carer voice in improvement of local services underpins providing excellent care that really meets people’s needs.
In late January, the Network took the next step in the evolution of its well established involvement activities by bringing together its two separate stroke and neurorehabilitation patient and carer groups (pictured above).
Both groups had been meeting separately 3-4 times a year, but with growing overlap in network quality improvement projects, it felt the right time to combine the groups.
Members have lived experience of a range of conditions, and the first joint meeting focused on getting to know each other to better understand the different impacts of neurological conditions.
The next meeting, in March, will continue on the theme of sharing experiences and the group will review the Network’s updated strategy to ensure it is focusing on the areas that matter to patients and their families and carers.
Improving care for people with multiple sclerosis
The Network has continued the work to enhance hospital and community based care for more common neurological conditions and has begun to flesh out potential areas of improvement for multiple sclerosis (MS).
This follows on from a highly successful collaboration in motor neurone disease (MND), which has already reaped benefits in bringing care teams together and upskilling staff.
The team hopes to use the learning from the MND project to rapidly make progress in MS and other conditions.
Finally, the Network has been focusing on how it can help inpatient and community teams deliver more intensity and frequency of specialist rehabilitation, as evidence shows this helps speed up and improve recovery, and ensures people live well longer.
Last year, many clinicians from across the region attended a network organised Stroke Ed course – which are stroke rehabilitation workshops for physiotherapists and occupational therapists.
The Network hosted a follow up event, led by clinical leads Chris Hyde and Jenny Harrison, to allow teams to share how they had implemented the training, and learn from each other on maximising the benefit for patients.
Training remains at the heart of what the Network does, and it will shortly be publishing a report on its activities for last year which included 16 face to face and online events, with videos from 2023 watched on YouTube 2,757 times and all videos viewed 9,931 times. You can find out more about the Network here and follow it on “X” @GMNISDN.
Sign-up for free training session
The Network is running a training session about peripheral arterial disease next month.
The event is a free face to face training session for Greater Manchester cardiovascular rehabilitation professionals only.
This afternoon training session will cover the following topics:
- Introduction to Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD) and NICE Guidance
- Diagnosing PAD Assessment – Practical Approach/Demonstration
- Exercise Interventions for PAD
- Implementing PAD within Cardiac Rehabilitation
- Adaptation and Practical Advice
- Cardiac versus PAD – Similarities and Difference
Lunch will be provided at the event, on Monday, March 11.
Good luck Lyndsey!
Cardiac Network project manager Lyndsey Kavanagh is leaving for maternity leave this week.
The team wants to wish her and her family all the best as they get ready to welcome their new addition to the family!
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