Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the (a) extent and (b) effectiveness of sharing of best practice of implementation of guidance on multiple pregnancies between NHS hospital trusts.

Evidence based advice on the care of women with multiple pregnancies is set out in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE ) Clinical Guidelines ‘Multiple Pregnancies – The management of twin and triplet pregnancies in the antenatal period’. In line with these guidelines, we would expect clinical care for women with twin and triplet pregnancies to be provided by a nominated multidisciplinary team consisting of a core team, including named specialist obstetricians, who have experience and knowledge of managing twin and triplet pregnancies. The Department has not undertaken an assessment of the effectiveness of the implementation of the NICE guidelines.

Local maternity care providers are responsible for determining how best to deliver services for women with multiple pregnancies in their area. In doing so we would expect them to give due regard to NICE guidelines.

NHS England has asked Baroness Julia Cumberlege to lead a major review of maternity services to modernise care for women and babies across the country, as first set out in NHS England’s Five Year Forward View. The independent review group is assessing current maternity care provision, considering the evidence on different models of care and will make recommendations on how services should be developed to meet the changing needs of women and babies. The group met for the first time on 23 April and it plans to report by the end of the year. More information is available at:

http://www.england.nhs.uk/2015/05/29/julia-cumberlege-2/