Workshop Maternal health Quality Standards in the South African Context
Maternal Health is a major health priority in South Africa. The National Department of Health’s National Maternity Guidelines provide a comprehensive guide to all aspects of maternity care, from early prenatal care, acute management of delivery and post-partum care. It is expected that adherence to the guidelines would have substantial impact on maternal and new-born outcomes, however, nationally consistent implementation of guidelines has been limited.
Quality improvement initiatives for reducing maternal mortality in the form of Quality Standards represent a cross cutting programme of work that will enable joint working on key activities while addressing a major health priority in south Africa. However, while Quality Standards have been used internationally to goo effect, it is imperative that any initiative is tailored to local need and context.
Addressing the above, on the 6th of April this year PRICELESS and iDSI organised a workshop with the topic “Maternal Care Quality Standards in the South African Context” in Pretoria, South Africa, led by Karen Hofman.
The meeting objectives were:
- to identify existing guidance and quality improvement initiatives in maternal health and seek coordination and potential synergies
- Learn about the experience of adapting NICE developed Quality Standards in Maternal health to the context of Kerala, India
- Explore the applicability of the Quality Standard approach to the South Africa Context.
During the workshop, topics were introduced by speakers from all over the world. The workshop started with an introduction by Karen Hofman. After, Carol Marshall talked about the current status and existing quality improvement initiative in South Africa and Bob Pattinson discussed the 2015 Maternal Guidelines. Dr Francoise Cluzeau (NICE International) gave an introduction to Quality Standards (QS) and Dr Vakkanal Pailey (Kerala Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecology) spoke about Lessons Learned: Developing Maternal Quality Standards Adapting to Kerala, India. The group discussed whether Quality Standards could be adapted to the South African Context, identifying the scope of QS, the key stakeholders in this context and the proposed timeline.
The agenda and the slides can be downloaded below
Quality of Care Initiatives by Dr Carol Marshall
Maternal Care Quality Standards in the South African context by Karen Hofman
Implimenting Quality: An Introduction to Quality Standards by Dr Francoise Cluzeau
Quality standards in ob care : the right approach by Dr Vakkanal Pailey