Maternity Services Data Set
Summary
- Collections
- Information standards
- Any NHS Trust providing NHS-funded maternity services.
- Any independent sector provider of NHS-commissioned maternity services.
- NHS maternity pathway related services, e.g. obstetrics, midwifery, foetal medicine, radiology, pathology, gynaecology, neonatal.
- Commissioners of NHS-funded maternity services to ensure reporting/management information are updated in line with these changes.
- Data definitions and terminologies
- Reference data
Documentation
Version 2.0 of the Maternity Services Data Set (MSDS) represents a significant change to the existing structure of the current information standard (v1.5). It brings the MSDS into line with the structure of other national data sets managed by NHS Digital. In addition, the changes cover:
- removal of the exemption for paper-based records
- introduction of SNOMED CT, enabling:
- more detailed diagnoses
- more detailed procedures, observations and findings
- more data about smoking status
- capture of scored assessments
- payment pathways for mothers with specific conditions or complex social factors
- introduction of data items to capture:
- continuity of carer
- personalised care plans
- intended and actual place of birth
- new values for overseas visitor charging category
- linkage to neonatal data
- data to monitor conformance with NICE clinical guidance.
Some of the new data items will allow the future retirement of overlapping collections once MSDS data achieves the right quality.
A number of the changes are in specific response to the National Maternity Review, which led to the publication of the Better Births report in February 2016. This report highlighted the need for maternity services in England to (a) become safer and more personalised and (b) provide better access to information for pregnant women. The publication of Better Births resulted in the establishment of the Maternity Transformation Programme, and this updated version of the data set forms part of the ‘Sharing Data and Information’ workstream of the Programme.
From 1 April 2019, providers must be able to collect the data specified in this release. From 1 May 2019, providers must begin to submit data as specified in this release, ensuring that by 30 June 2019 they have successfully made their first submission of Version 2.0 data.