You are very welcome to the 24th edition of the Rotunda GP-Connect E-zine. Aileen Fleming, our Candidate AMP in Diabetes has written a very informative article about managing diabetes in pregnancy. The postpartum follow up is very important and as Aileen said we have decided that this is best done within General Practice. The decision to allow a fasting glucose and HbA1c is consistent with the NICE guidelines and should be checked 3 months after the delivery. It is now part of the annual screening for chronic disease prevention and allows women, especially those who are breastfeeding, to be effectively screened by a General Practitioner.
Over the last 4 months of 2024 and from January to February of this year, we implemented a very effective programme to offer immunisation to all newborn babies against RSV respiratory infection. As you know the disease burden of this infection can be considerable and many babies and young children end up being admitted to hospital and some of them are extremely ill. We managed to implement the programme and Emer Croke was the coordinator for what turned out to be a very successful RSV Pathfinder programme. Ultimately over 82% of the babies who met the criteria were immunised with Nirsevimab; by using our electronic health care medical record and with the help of Leon O’Hagan, who was the Senior Pharmacist and Informatics person, we were able to look specifically at the women who declined immunisation and will work with these women to try and improve uptake later this year when the programme will be repeated. Leon has a very detailed report which gives you an in-depth look at the results.
The journey initiative, which has made a huge difference to those couples who came through our Fetal Medicine Unit and are faced with a difficult diagnosis, forms the final report in this month’s Rotunda GP-Connect. As you can see there are multiple aspects to this journey project and I would like to complement our Fetal Medicine Midwives who have taken on this initiative and have brought it forward.
Professor Sean Daly,
Master/CEO, Rotunda Hospital.
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