Miscarriage Care and Facilities in Scotland: Scoping Report National Overview

This report

This report details the findings of a scoping exercise to enable better understanding of miscarriage care in Scotland overall. It sets out the current arrangements for miscarriage care in Scotland and will be used to inform the development of a consistent graded model of care across Scotland. Alongside this report, detailed reports on the service provision within each of the 14 Health Boards in Scotland have been produced. This national report seeks to aid policy makers and Health Boards in making decisions about what improvements are required to miscarriage care in Scotland.

The key aims of the report are to;

• provide an overarching view of miscarriage care in Scotland
• highlight consistencies and inconsistencies in miscarriage care provision
• provide information to aid in the development of an improvement plan for miscarriage care in Scotland

Methods

All Health Boards were contacted to identify a lead professional for miscarriage care within their individual Health Board in May 2022. The lead professionals then worked with the Scottish Government to identify staff within the 44 secondary care sites across Scotland where women experiencing miscarriage may present to access care. When a contact for all 44 sites was identified, a web-based questionnaire was sent out to each site to request information on the provision of care within that site.

The questionnaire opened on the 1^st June 2022 and unique links to the questionnaire were sent to all 44 sites (Annex B). The questionnaire consisted of up to 95 questions and sites were routed through the questionnaire based on their answers to the questions. There were a range of closed and open ended questions within the questionnaire, as well as space for additional information to be added if appropriate. The questionnaire closed on the 3^rd August 2022 with responses from all 44 sites across all 14 Health Boards.

The results of the questionnaire were collated, analysed, and are presented in a national report as well as in individual reports specific to each Health Board. This report presents the analysis of responses received from all Health Boards in Scotland. Alongside the questionnaire responses, sites were also asked to send leaflets and other policy documents relevant to miscarriage care to the Scottish Government. Where documents were submitted, these were analysed along with the questionnaire results to supplement some sections of the individual Health Board reports.