A Surrey pregnancy advice line based at South East Coast Ambulance Service’s (SECAmb) Emergency Operations Centre in Crawley is celebrating after handling more than 200,000 calls in the five years since its launch in April 2018.
The Call a Midwife Surrey Advice Line, which was established by Surrey Heartlands Health and Care Partnership as part of the national NHS Better Births plan.
It available to patients and new parents under the care of a number of Surrey hospitals to access advice and support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from a midwife.
The line, which has, to date, handled more than 225,000 calls, is available during pregnancy, labour and following the birth of a baby for patients under the care of Royal Surrey County Hospital, Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals and Epsom and St Helier Hospitals.
The advice line sees calls triaged by midwives who can provide advice and signpost to the most appropriate place for their care. Being based in the ambulance control room ensures midwives are also on hand to provide expert advice if required on any pregnancy-related 999 calls.
Since its launch, the service has assisted in the handling of approximately 3,000 emergency 999 calls.
Head of Clinical Operations Integrated Care (111/999) at SECAmb, Scott Thowney said: “I’m delighted the service has been able to help so many patients since its launch. It’s a real benefit to have the expertise of the midwives in our Emergency Operations Centre to provide additional assistance to our teams if needed.
“I would like to thank everyone who has been involved in ensuring the success of this service and look forward to it helping many more patients in the years ahead.”