Maternity and gynaecology

Maternity and gynaecology are separate medical disciplines often, but not always, provided by a single department in a hospital. They were reviewed alongside one another for the GIRFT national report.

GIRFT’s maternity recommendations focus on reinforcing existing guidance in maternity care and are aligned with initiatives such as NHS England’s Maternity Transformation Programme, the Saving Babies’ Lives Care Bundle (2016) and the Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme, as well as the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ Each Baby Counts initiative. The recommendations and actions focus on antenatal care, continuity of care for pregnant women and access to support.

In gynaecology, GIRFT’s recommendations are designed to support and accelerate the ongoing shift towards making more effective use of primary and intermediary care and providing more choice to women.

David Richmond

Clinical Lead for Maternity and Gynaecology

Consultant in Urogynaecology

David is currently a non-executive director at Birmingham Women and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust and a member of the Medical Defence Union (MDU) Council and Cases Committee.

After graduating from Edinburgh University in 1977 and spending his initial training there, David became a lecturer at Liverpool University in 1983. He spent a year as a senior resident in Adelaide, Australia, before appointment as consultant in 1990 in Liverpool. He was medical director of Liverpool Women’s Hospital from 1993 until 2010 before his election as vice president and then president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (2013 to 2016).

His clinical specialty was that of urogynaecology. As chair of the audit committee of the British Society of Urogynaecology (BSUG) he developed the national BSUG surgical database with others. At the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) he was instrumental in delivering the first national outcome report for maternity which is now the National Maternal and Perinatal Audit programme. He retired from NHS clinical practice in 2017.

Rob Sherwin

Former Clinical Lead and report author

Director of Women’s Health Service at Auckland District Health Board, NZ

Rob is currently the Director of Women’s Health Service at Auckland District Health Board, New Zealand, where he works clinically as a urogynaecologist and is accountable for the clinical, safety, human resources and financial outcomes of the service. He previously worked as a consultant and associate medical director at the Whittington Hospital, London.

GIRFT national report focuses on safety and choice for women using maternity and gynaecology services

Protecting the safety of mothers and their newborn babies, while improving women’s choice and their experience of the NHS, is at the heart of the national report for maternity and gynaecology services from the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme.