Launched across the West of England and South West AHSN regions in April 2020, PERIPrem (Perinatal Excellence to Reduce Injury in Premature Birth) is a unique perinatal care bundle of eleven interventions that demonstrate a significant impact on brain injury and mortality rates amongst babies born prematurely.
Watch our short explainer video to find out more about PERIPrem:
PERIPrem is not just about implementing a care bundle but forging a new way of working, where clinicians from obstetrics, midwifery and neonatal join together to drive forward and revolutionise care for pre term babies. Read more about the project.
From April 2021, PERIPrem became part of the AHSN’s local activity to deliver the Maternal and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme.
Resources to implement PERIPrem
Our implementation resources contain tools and documents that will support teams to adopt and embed PERIPrem. This includes a number of documents in multiple languages that are designed to help inform and fully involve parents in the care of their preterm baby. View the PERIPrem baby and clinical passports.
Our useful materials page contains general resources and playlists of key videos.
Links to each of the bundle elements can be found at the bottom of this page.
Can I reuse and adapt these resources?
PERIPrem was co-produced by the West of England and South West AHSNs, and the South West Neonatal Operational Delivery Network. If you are using any of the resources, please credit these organisations.
Impact
The National Neonatal Audit Programme’s (NNAP) 2021 report (published in November 2022) shows units across the South West achieved, on average, the:
- highest rate of delayed cord clamping (by over 25%);
- highest rates of parental presence at one or more consultant rounds (for admissions lasting more than 24 hours);
- second highest rates of maternal early breast milk;
- second lowest rates of severe grade Intraventricular Haemorrhage or death;
- second lowest rates of necrotising enterocolitis alongside
- third lowest rates of mortality to discharge for babies born at less than 28 weeks in England.
In September 2022 PERIPrem was awarded best national/regional project at the BAPM Gopi Menon Awards.
In August 2022, an independent evaluation was published in the British Medical Journal Open Quality. It indicated 26% more mothers and babies born prematurely across the South West of England received the care interventions they were eligible for between July 2020 and June 2021, compared to before PERIPrem started. Explore a summary graphic of the PERIPrem evaluation.
PERIPrem featured as a case study in the April 2022 NHS GIRFT Neonatology report with teams being encouraged to access our resources. PERIPrem case studies were also published by NHS Confederation (April 2022) and the National Child Mortality Database thematic report (August 2022), alongside official PERIPrem resources having received Neonatal Nurses Association endorsement.
Watch our short video where parents of premature babies discuss how their births were affected by PERIPrem.
At the 2021 HSJ Patient Safety Awards, PERIPrem was highly commended as the Patient Safety Pilot of the Year. PERIPrem was also shortlisted for Provider Collaboration of the Year at the 2021 HSJ Awards.
Read more about PERIPrem’s impact in our case study.
