Miscarriage Care and Facilities in Scotland: Scoping Report NHS Dumfries and Galloway

Data about miscarriages

Accurate assessment of the number of all miscarriages that occur in Scotland is not possible at present as only miscarriages that require hospital inpatient or day case treatment are recorded.

The Lancet series on Miscarriage Matters recommended that:

• miscarriage data are gathered and reported to facilitate comparison of rates among countries, to accelerate research, and to improve patient care and policy development; and
• every country reports annual aggregate miscarriage data, similarly to the reporting of stillbirth.

The Scottish Government is currently working with Public Health Scotland to find ways to improve miscarriage data recording and to gather a more accurate picture of the number of miscarriages in Scotland. This will be used to facilitate comparison of rates among countries, to accelerate research, and to improve patient care and policy development.

This scoping exercise found that miscarriage data is not collected in all sites or in all Health Boards in Scotland. While some data is collected in 11 of the 14 boards, there is variation in what is being recorded as a miscarriage and this varies both across and within Health Boards.

Information technology used to collect miscarriage data

Across Scotland different IT systems are used by Health Boards to collect data about those accessing miscarriage care. BadgerNet Maternity is used by 11 out of 14 Health Boards to collect miscarriage data and Trakcare is used by 8 Health Boards to capture miscarriage data.

In NHS Dumfries and Galloway data is available via BadgerNet in both sites and the clinical portal in Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary but is not actively collected. Basic data on miscarriages is collected for local purposes for Early Pregnancy Services follow up but not for formal purposes. No data is routinely collected on proportion of pregnancies, gestation, maternal age, parity, SIMD or ethnicity but data could be analysed if required.

In NHS Dumfries and Galloway women reporting a home positive pregnancy test will be recorded as a pregnancy with no further confirmation required, with verbal reporting of pregnancy loss after positive test recorded as miscarriage