Hospital Makes Pledges for NHS Change Day

Staff at one of the region’s largest hospitals are all set to carry out caring pledges they have made for todays NHS Change Day.

People all over the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital have joined the grassroots movement that encourages staff involved with the NHS to do something different to improve the service. Over the past two years thousands of people made pledges to change things.

In the maternity unit doctors and midwives have been filling in a giant poster with their pledges. Among them is the aim to encourage deferred cord clamping at birth in the light of recent NICE guidelines.

Consultant Martin Cameron explained “We are encouraging deferred cord clamping based on evidence gathered in studies over the past five or six years which shows that not cutting the umbilical cord for between one and five minutes leads to an increase in haemoglobin levels so the babies will have greater iron stores.”

He said although deferred cord clamping should be considered for each birth it wasn’t always possible, depending on the condition/reactions of the baby straight after birth.

Other pledges on the wall in the hospital’s delivery suite include;
I will encourage normal birth; I will advocate for women’s choice of birthplace; I will hellomynameis everyday, I will talk to people about optimal (deferred) cord clamping and I will create a resource file for women who don’t speak English.

Acting delivery suite matron Wendy Evans who wrote her pledge on the poster welcomed NHS Change Day and said “We are always looking for ways to raise standards of care for women in our hospital.”