PReCePT stands for the prevention of
cerebral palsy in preterm labour. It was selected by NHS England as one of the
seven programmes for adoption and spread across the national AHSN Network
during 2018-2020.
PReCePT was
developed by the West of England AHSN in collaboration with University
Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust and involved both patients and staff. The
intervention was adopted by all five maternity units in the West of England. Since
the launch of the project in August 2014, phase one of PReCePT has prevented
seven cases of cerebral palsy across the region.
This
evidence-based, cost-effective project was designed to help reduce cerebral
palsy in babies through the increased antenatal administration of magnesium
sulphate (MgSO4) to mothers during preterm labour, costing from £1 per
individual dose.
Between 4,000 and
5,000 babies are born before 30 weeks’ gestation in England per year and stand
to benefit from the full national roll-out of the PReCePT programme.
Successful scaling up of PReCePT is likely to prevent several hundred cases of cerebral palsy per year, based on highest grade evidence. This work will be led by the West of England AHSN working in partnership with all 15 AHSNs across the country. This work also aligns with the Maternal and Neonatal Health Safety Collaborative (MNHSC) change drivers and the national Patient Safety Collaboratives (PSCs).
PReCePT is also
running in tandem with the PReCePT Study, a research trial nested within the
national programme, funded by the Health Foundation. This aims to assess the
effectiveness of two different quality improvement approaches in implementing
the project across a subset of maternity units. Of the 152 maternity units
across England in the PReCePT Programme, 40 maternity units have been randomly
selected to be part of the PReCePT study. Within this group, 13 units are
receiving enhanced QI support from the Study team, and 27 units are being
observed while implementing the standard QI support model.
PReCePT is the
first ever perinatal programme delivered at scale across England, bringing
together midwives, obstetricians and neonatologists in every maternity unit in
the country. As part of this national programme each AHSN now has regional and
clinical leads, as well as teams of midwives implementing the project. The AHSN
network has developed various resources to help those implementing project.
Contact: Suzi van
Es, Programme Manager Innovation Adoption & PReCePT Programme Lead. Tel: 02382 020 840