Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to mandate frontline Placenta Accreta Spectrum diagnostic training for relevant maternity clinicians.

To ensure effective diagnosis and management of placenta accreta spectrum (PAS), national guidance is provided within the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ Placenta Praevia and Placenta Accreta: Diagnosis and Management guidelines. Both these guidance documents are available, respectively, at the following two links:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng192/documents/draft-guideline-2

https://www.rcog.org.uk/guidance/browse-all-guidance/green-top-guidelines/placenta-praevia-and-placenta-accreta-diagnosis-and-management-green-top-guideline-no-27a/

The Department does not hold data on what proportion of the maternity workforce has received PAS diagnostic training in each of the last five years, as PAS training is managed locally by trusts. The Department does not currently have plans to mandate frontline PAS diagnostic training.

In 2020, NHS England commissioned placenta accreta networks in the United Kingdom to support local and regional screening, shared protocols, and co-ordinated referral pathways to specialist pregnancy accreta centres. These centres consist of highly experienced multidisciplinary teams with the expertise to manage this condition and improve the safety outcomes for women and babies.