NHS Trusts across the Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership which provide maternity care are rolling out a new digital system for expectant mums to register their pregnancy and access their care notes.
The new system, called BadgerNet, is provided by a company called Clevermed. BadgerNet is a full electronic patient record, which supports clinical and administrative management of the woman’s whole maternity journey and replaces the current paper-based records.
NHS Trusts taking part are York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust.
With BadgerNet, the way that women access and book into the maternity service will change. Expectant parents will be able to self-refer directly into the service via an online booking form where they will fill in their details, be assigned to a midwife and an appointment will be generated. This will remove the need for women to get an appointment with her GP before being referred through to the service and ensure that she is seen by a midwife as soon as possible. Women who do not have digital access, will be able to telephone the service to self-refer for their pregnancy care.
The service will also launch ‘Badger Notes’, an online portal and app. Badger Notes replaces the traditional hand-held paper record and allows the parents to have real-time access to their maternity care record, which is updated with information drawn from the hospital maternity records. It is a secure system requiring a log-in, which allows parents-to-be to see updates to their notes in real-time, as well as adding their own information such as birthing plans or preferences and feedback. The portal is connected to the BadgerNet system which will be used by maternity staff to record notes following appointments and consultations.
Records can be easily updated at each maternity visit or appointment, and midwives do not have to ‘double enter’ data onto paper handheld notes, allowing them more time to focus on delivering the best care.
Women receiving maternity care using traditional paper notes, will be transferred on to the BadgerNet system when they birth their baby. They will be given access to Badger Notes at that point, giving them access to their digital maternity record and that of their baby.
Becky Case, Local Maternity and Neonatal System Programme Lead, Humber, and North Yorkshire, said: “This is positive news for families across our region. The new system is secure and puts control in hands of families and easy access to their notes for the healthcare professionals involved in their care,
“The app is easy to use and so we expect that most parents-to-be will enjoy the benefits almost straightaway. We feel that this portal allows us to enhance our person-centred approach, putting families at the heart of their maternity care throughout the pregnancy and post-natal journey.”
More details, including the new link to register a pregnancy, are available at https://humberandnorthyorkshire.org.uk/our-work/maternity/badgernet/.