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Welcome to the Right Decision Service (RDS) newsletter for August 2024.

  1. Contingency planning for RDS outages

Following the recent RDS outages, Tactuum and the RDS team have been reviewing the learning from these incidents. We are committed to doing all we can to ensure a positive outcome by strengthening the RDS to make it fully robust and clinically resilient for the future.

We would like to invite you to a webinar on 26th September 3-4 pm on national and local contingency planning for future RDS outages.  Tactuum and the RDS team will speak about our business continuity plans and the national contingency arrangements we are putting in place. This will also be a space to share local contingency plans, ideas and existing good practice. We would also like to gather your views on who we should send communications to in the event of future outages.

I have sent a meeting request for this date to all editors – please accept or decline to indicate attendance, and please forward on to relevant contacts. You can also contact Olivia.graham@nhs.scot directly to register your interest in participating.

 

2.National  IV fluid prescribing  calculator

This UK CA marked calculator is now live at https://righdecisions.scot.nhs.uk/ivfluids  . It has been developed by a multiprofessional steering group of leads in IV fluids management, as part of the wider Modernising Patient Pathways Programme within the Centre for Sustainable Delivery.  It aims to address a known cause of clinical error in hospital settings, and we hope it will be especially useful to the new junior doctors who started in August.

Please do spread the word about this new calculator and get in touch with any questions.

 

  1. New toolkits

The following toolkits are now live;

  1. Updated guidance on current and future Medical Device Regulations

We have updated and simplified this guidance within our standard operating procedures. We have clarified the guidance on how to determine whether an RDS tool is a medical device, and have provided an interactive powerpoint slideset to steer you through the process.

 

  1. Guide to six stages of RDS toolkit development

We have developed a guide to support editors and toolkit leads through the process of scoping, designing, delivering, quality assuring and implementing a new RDS toolkit.  We hope this will help in project planning and in building shared understanding of responsibilities throughout the full development process.  The guide emphasises that the project does not end with launch of the new toolkit. Implementation, communication and evaluation are ongoing activities throughout the lifetime of the toolkit.

 

  1. Training sessions for new editors (also serve as refresher sessions for existing editors) will take place on the following dates:
  • Thursday 5 September 1-2 pm
  • Wednesday 24 September 4-5 pm
  • Friday 27 September 12-1 pm

To book a place, please contact Olivia.graham@nhs.scot, providing your name, organisation, job role, and level of experience with RDS editing (none, a little, moderate, extensive.)

7 Evaluation projects

Dr Stephen Biggart from NHS Lothian has kindly shared with us the results of a recent survey of use of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh Anaesthesia toolkit. This shows that the majority of consultants are using it weekly or monthly, mainly to access clinical protocols, with a secondary purpose being education and training purposes. They tend to find information by navigating by specialty rather than keyword searching, and had some useful recommendations for future development, such as access to quick reference guidance.

We’d really appreciate you sharing any other local evaluations of RDS in this way – it all helps to build the evidence base for impact.

If you have any questions about the content of this newsletter, please contact his.decisionsupport@nhs.scot  If you would prefer not to receive future newsletters, please email Olivia.graham@nhs.scot and ask to be removed from the circulation list.

 

With kind regards

 

Right Decision Service team

Healthcare Improvement Scotland

Early Medical Termination of Pregnancy in the Home Setting (115)

Warning

Please report any inaccuracies or issues with this guideline using our online form

Evidence from national research and local audit activity has demonstrated that early medical termination at home is a safe procedure which offers additional choice to women requesting termination of pregnancy.

Women meeting the inclusion criteria will be offered the option to attend the hospital for mifepristone administration, return 48 hours later for the administration of misoprostol and be given the opportunity to go home to abort.

Inclusion Criteria

  • Age 16 or above.
  • Gestation at the time of misoprostol < 63 days.
  • Singleton pregnancy.
  • Language – must be fluent in English and be able to read English.
  • Must stay within 30-45 minutes from a GG&C Gynaecology unit.
  • Must have transport available.
  • Must have immediate access to support at home if required.

Clinic Visit

  • Consultation as per normal referral at the clinic visit.
  • Patient will be risk assessed and MUST fit the inclusion criteria.
  • The consent form will be signed and stored in the casenotes.
  • Bloods will be taken for G+S and FBC.
  • Patient will be given the Early Discharge information leaflet (appendix 1).
  • The follow up pregnancy test information (appendix 1) will be given in conjunction with a pregnancy test.
  • If the pregnancy test result shows “risk of termination failure” then the patient should contact Sandyford.

Mifepristone Day

  • Ensure appropriate documentation is available.
  • Check consent form is signed.
  • Ensure intra-uterine pregnancy is confirmed by ultrasound scan.
  • Check paperwork in the ICP.
  • Check the patient is sure of their decision.
  • Mifepristone 200mg PO will be administered in the gynaecology day ward (except when the patient has been given this at the clinic).
  • Advise patient to return to the ward if she vomits within 1 hour.
  • Ensure advice is given to the patient regarding pain and/or bleeding they may experience over the following 24-48 hours.
  • Ensure the patient has the ward telephone number.
  • Relevant information should be documented in the ICP.

Misoprostol Day

48 hours following mifepristone.

  • Arrive patient under ward attenders on Trakcare.
  • Nurse enquires about pain/bleeding/passage of products of conception.
  • Check BP, pulse and temperature.
  • Explain the procedure to the patient including information about expected PV bleeding/ abdominal pain/ passage of tissue.
  • Patient is NOT routinely required to fast.
  • Misoprostol 800mcg is administered PV (this may be self administered.)
  • Metronidazole 1g is administered PR (this may be self administered.)
  • Diclofenac 100mg is administered PR as prophylactic analgesia unless contraindicated (this may be self administered.)
  • Anti-D prophylaxis MUST be given to ALL rhesus negative women.
  • Give prescribed contraception – COCP, POP, implant or Depo-provera prior to discharge. If the patient requires an IUCD or IUS they should attend Sandyford or their GP after their pregnancy test has established they are not pregnant.
  • Azithromycin 1g PO.
  • Discharge analgesia should be offered.
  • Ensure the patient has a pregnancy test to do in 2 weeks time.
  • Relevant information should be documented in the ICP.
  • Outcome patient under ward attenders on Trakcare.
  • Ensure the patient has contact phone numbers and advise them that they may telephone the ward today and then Sandyford with any queries/problems.

Follow Up Pregnancy Test at 2 Weeks Post Procedure

The patient will have been advised to do a pregnancy test 2 weeks after being administered misoprostol. They will be informed to contact Sandyford if the result states “there is a risk of termination failure” or if they have any concerns.

Appendix 1: patient information

Editorial Information

Next review date: 30/09/2022

Author(s): Elena Young.

Approved By: Gynaecology Clinical Governance Group

Document Id: 115

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