Extended use of facemasks and face coverings guidance in hospitals, primary care and wider community healthcare settings (referred to as 'Healthcare settings'): Equality Impact Assessment

Pregnancy and Maternity

1. Background

Pregnant women are at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19 compared with non-pregnant women^[49]. In December 2021 the JCVI added pregnant women to the list of groups considered clinically vulnerable to COVID-19 disease, and hence prioritised for vaccination. In response to this, the Chief Medical Officer for Scotland asked NHS Boards to consider ways to further increase provision of vaccination for pregnant women, for example by establishing dedicated antenatal vaccination clinics. In line with expert advice provided by the JCVI^[50], the COVID-19 vaccination programme has continued to offer primary course and booster vaccinations to those at higher risk of severe COVID-19, including pregnant women.

2. Evidence / Date – Related to Healthcare Settings

Figure 5. This data shows the number of live births from March 2022 to March 2023 in hospitals by age. 11.8% of births were from women aged 20-24, 26% from women aged 25-29, 35% from women aged 30-34, 20.2% from women aged 35-39 and 4.7% in women aged 40+.

Staff in Healthcare settings:

According to the NHS staff respondents to iMatter 2022^[52], when it asked: ‘Have you been on maternity/parental or shared parental leave in the last 12 months?’, 3% responded as ‘yes’, 90% responded as ‘no’ and 7% provided no answer.

Visitors to Healthcare settings:

No data around general population regarding number of people who are pregnant or visiting maternity services.

3. Impact Summary – Related to Healthcare Settings

Does the withdrawal of the extended use of facemask guidance in healthcare settings have a positive or negative impact on people as result of pregnancy and maternity?

It is important to emphasise that the use of face masks will still be in place in healthcare settings if they are required clinically or as a result of outbreak/ incident management.

When reviewing the evidence presented in this equality impact assessment it is evident that although pregnancy comes with increased vulnerability to COVID-19 the rollout of vaccination to this group and the predominately younger age associated with this goes someway to mitigating this risk. Therefore, there is neither positive or negative impact on those who are pregnant or accessing maternity services as a result of withdrawing this guidance. Patients and Visitors can choose to wear a face mask if they wish.

The NHS as an employer is responsible for each member of staff’s health and safety. This includes having to complete risk assessments and refer to Occupational Health where necessary. Upon assessment any reasonable adjustments must be made which includes the routine use of face masks.