Service users and care providers’ experiences of tertiary combined fetal medicine clinics

Abstract

To explore service users and care providers' experiences of combined fetal medicine and specialist paediatric clinics. A brief survey of service users and care providers at combined fetal medicine clinics, which bring together multiple specialists and expertise for the management of pregnancies complicated by fetal cardiac, renal, neurological or surgical abnormalities. Two hundred and sixty-one patients and 22 health professionals participated. More than 85% of women rated the clinic highly, 61% reported that the service had changed how they viewed the abnormality, and 53% reported that they would welcome further visits to the combined clinic. The majority of health professionals reported that combined clinics improved the accuracy of parental counselling and enhanced communication between specialties involved in the management of complicated pregnancies. The clinics are generally regarded as being useful for the training of junior staff. A service model that combines fetal medicine and paediatric specialists in a single clinic can efficiently modify parental perspective on fetal anomalies and enhance professional communication and training. Condition-specific information leaflets could further enhance service quality. A larger study involving a socio-demographically stratified sample of service users is needed to provide more authoritative data.