Miscarriage Care and Facilities in Scotland: Scoping Report NHS Orkney

This report details the findings of a scoping exercise to better understand miscarriage care in Scotland within this Health Board. The individual Health Board reports and the national report seek to aid policy makers and Health Boards in making decisions about improvements to Miscarriage Care


Findings

Miscarriage care services in Scotland

In Scotland women experiencing miscarriage present at many different locations. This includes: GP practices, Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments, Maternity Units, Community Maternity units (CMU)[5], Early Pregnancy Units (EPU), and midwifery services more generally. Women can call in advance or present in person for the first time at this range of settings.

Within the 14 Health Board areas in Scotland, numerous secondary care sites that could provide miscarriage care in Scotland were identified. These were checked by the lead professional for miscarriage care in each Health Board to ensure they were secondary care sites that may be the first point of contact for women experiencing miscarriage. This resulted in 44 sites being identified. The sites are listed in Annex A. Table 1 shows the number of sites identified for each Health Board.

Table 1: Number of sites where women experiencing miscarriage in Scotland may be seen

Health Board

Number of sites

NHS Ayrshire and Arran

3

NHS Borders

1

NHS Dumfries and Galloway

2

NHS Fife

1

NHS Forth Valley

1

NHS Grampian

6

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

5

NHS Highland

12

NHS Lanarkshire

3

NHS Lothian

2

NHS Orkney

1

NHS Shetland

1

NHS Tayside

3

NHS Western Isles

3

Total

44

Table 2 below lists the secondary care services that the 44 sites, that took part in this scoping exercise, said were available at each site within the 14 Health Board areas.

Table 2: Services for miscarriage care in Scotland

Services

Early Pregnancy Unit

Maternity Unit

Community Maternity Unit

Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department

Accident & Emergency Department

Recurrent miscarriage services

Infertility services

Total All Sites

17

19

21

21

37

13

14

All Health Boards

10

14

7

14

14

11

12

NHS Ayrshire and Arran

1

1

1

1

3

1

1

NHS Borders

1

1

0

1

1

1

1

NHS Dumfries and Galloway

0

1

0

1

2

1

2

NHS Fife

1

1

0

1

1

1

1

NHS Forth Valley

1

1

1

1

1

0

1

NHS Grampian

2

2

3

2

4

1

1

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

5

4

4

4

4

2

2

NHS Highland

1

1

8

1

10

1

0

NHS Lanarkshire

2

1

0

2

3

1

1

NHS Lothian

2

2

0

2

2

2

1

NHS Orkney

0

1

0

1

1

1

1

NHS Shetland

0

1

0

1

1

0

1

NHS Tayside

1

1

3

2

1

1

1

NHS Western Isles

0

1

1

1

3

0

0

Services in NHS Orkney

In NHS Orkney one secondary care site was identified that could come into contact with women experiencing miscarriage, which is:

  • Balfour Hospital

Most woman present at the Maternity Unit at Balfour Hospital when experiencing a miscarriage. The services provided at Balfour Hospital are detailed in Table 3 below.

Table 3: Services for miscarriage care in NHS Orkney

Services

Early Pregnancy Unit

Maternity Unit

Community Maternity Unit

Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department

Accident & Emergency Department

Recurrent miscarriage clinic

Infertility services

Balfour Hospital

No

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

NHS Orkney provides treatment for all miscarriages from Balfour Hospital. Women are seen at the Maternity Unit which is where most women present for the first time when experiencing a miscarriage at this site.

Service delivery model in NHS Orkney

The services provided in NHS Orkney are all provided from one small Maternity Unit. The unit is Midwife-led with consultant support. Services are delivered flexibly to suit demand – therefore all services for miscarriage care are delivered based on what is needed at that specific time.

Contact

Email: socialresearch@gov.scot

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