Monday was an exciting day for me and many others involved with the charity Pregnancy Sickness Support as it was the day of our annual Healthcare Professionals' Conference. This year's central theme was Developing Services and Improving Care for Hyperemesis Gravidarum and we were joined by a fantastic line-up of speakers with some great topics for discussion. Many of the speakers are pioneers in their field who are leading the way in improving the care that HG sufferers receive in hospitals and the community.
We heard from Miss Manjeet Shemar, consultant at Birmingham Women's hospital, who set up an IV day unit and a treatment pathway which we hope will be emulated by hospitals across the country. Women in the Birmingham area are lucky to now have this service available to them but, sadly, it is not the same story elsewhere, with many women being denied appropriate treatments and admitted to hospital for lengthy periods when this could be avoided by swift rehydration and effective medication in a day unit similar to the one at Birmingham Women's. We are hoping that through collaboration we will encourage other NHS Hospital Trusts to take up the Birmingham Women's Hospital model.
Miss Shilpa Deb and Dr Rosalind King then spoke about developing GP guidelines and establishing collaboration between primary and secondary care. Unfortunately, the tragic events from 60 years ago continue to prey on the minds of many GPs who are still nervous of prescribing medication to pregnant women, particularly in their first trimester. Whilst their concerns are understandable, medicine has moved on a long way since then and we cannot, and should not, continue to be haunted by the ghost of thalidomide so many years later. A set of agreed GP guidelines will help to allay the fears of those GPs and this will enable many more women to access the treatments they desperately need.
These were just three of the many excellent speeches. Details of the full programme can be found here and copies of all the presentations will shortly be available on the charity's website.
But why is it so important that HG services and care are improved?
Just a few weeks ago Pregnancy Sickness Support published the results of a study carried out in conjunction with the British Pregnancy Advisory Service. This highlighted the shocking reality that many women suffering from HG are not offered the full range of available medical treatments but are expected to just put up with the condition. Sadly, a large proportion of women in the study felt, such are the devastating consequences of HG, that they had no choice but to terminate their much wanted pregnancy. This is an extremely sad and unacceptable state of affairs when safe and effective treatments are available and it shows that significant improvements need to be made in all the areas of healthcare we discussed at the conference.
But the good news is that change is slowly starting to happen. The very fact that we had several distinguished medical experts speaking about HG day units, IV at home services, GP guidelines etc. shows that the people who can make a real difference to HG sufferers' experiences are now beginning to implement change themselves. Our role as a charity is to facilitate this, to encourage collaboration, to provide assistance and guidance where needed and to ensure that we keep up the momentum for change.
The overwhelming feeling I had as I left the conference was one of positivity. I felt inspired and encouraged to see so many people in the room united by a common goal - to ensure that women suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum receive the treatment and care they deserve.
If you would also like to get involved you can contact Pregnancy Sickness Support by clicking here.
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