The birth notification process

It is very important that you attempt to find the mother first. Ensure that every effort has been made to find the patient before deciding to Allocate, as this helps to ensure that duplicate records for the mother will not be created.

The Allocate option will not be available until you've made at least one attempt to find the mother. Before a find has been initiated the Allocate tab is greyed out:

Finding a patient – an exact match found

If you enter details that result in a single exact match to an existing record then the matched record details will be displayed. You must decide if the record displayed is the mother for whom you want to enter the birth notification.

If the matched record is the mother then you should select the Birth Notification tab and carry on with the birth notification process.

If the matched record is not the mother then you should select the ‘Find a patient’ link on the menu bar and re-enter the details so that the previous matched record is not found. For example, add a first name or a postcode.

Finding a patient – multiple matches found

If multiple patients are found for the details you have entered then a list of potential matches are displayed. You should decide if any of the patients displayed in the list is the mother for whom you want to notify a birth. If they are, then select the appropriate record and carry on with the birth notification process.

If the patient list does not contain the mother and you need to allocate an NHS Number for the mother, then you should select the Allocate option in the blue banner. Selecting this will bring up the Allocate screen.

If the patient list does not contain the mother and you do not need an NHS Number for the mother, but just want to submit the birth notification, then you should select the Birth Notification option in the blue banner. Selecting this will bring up the Birth Notification screen without the mother’s NHS details.

Finding a patient – no matches found

If there are no patients found for the details that you entered then two banners will be displayed.

A yellow banner will indicate that no patient records match the details you entered. A blue banner will be displayed stating that the ‘Allocate Tab has been enabled’.

The Allocate tab is now available and can be selected to allow the entry of the mother’s details, creation of her PDS record and the allocation of an NHS Number.

The mother’s record

When a single match has been found for the details you have entered, or you have located and selected the mother’s record from the list of potential candidates, the mother’s record is displayed in the Summary Care Record application. You will be located on the Patient Details tab, like this:

You need to select the Birth Notification tab to continue to enter the birth notification. If the Birth Notification tab does not appear it could be because:

• the smartcard user does not have the correct Role Based Access Code (RBAC)
• the mother is too young - check the age of the mother
• the mother is not female - check the gender of the mother

The Allocate screen is divided into two sections:

1. Patient Details
2. Usual Address

Any details that were entered in the 'Find a patient' screen have now been copied into this screen; you should complete the remaining details that you want to include.

Mandatory fields are:

• Gender (must be female)
• First name
• Surname
• Date of Birth
• Previous NHS Contact (default is ‘No’)
• Usual Address – House Name or Number and Street
• Usual Address – Post town

Note that only the mother’s usual (or home) address can be entered.

You have the option to enter a contact telephone number for the mother; this can either be a home telephone number or a mobile telephone number.

Address lookup screen

You can either enter the details of the Usual Address directly or you can use the address lookup option displayed on the right hand side of the screen. The address lookup screen is only relevant to UK addresses.

If you want to use the address lookup then enter the postcode of the mother’s usual address - it will return all of the properties that relate to that postcode.

Alternatively, enter the street name and town for the mother.

In both cases the correct property can be selected from the resultant list.

Entering foreign addresses

If you wish to enter a foreign address then you should enter it directly into the mother’s details. As there is no section for country in the address details it is recommended that in the postcode you use the appropriate pseudo country postcode, which will ensure that the correct country is entered in the mother’s records. These are included in an appendix to this document. In this example we are using Belgium and the postcode for Belgium is ZZ99 2DZ.

This ensures that when the record is stored the postcode entered will be decoded into the correct country on the mother’s record. This can be seen in the Summary Care Record application (SCRa) patient details screen for the above details.

Allocating an NHS Number

After all the mother’s details have been entered the blue button marked ‘Allocate New NHS Number’ should be selected. This will validate all the information entered and either display the appropriate errors or allocate the NHS Number.

In this instance the address has been missed and all rows that contain an error have been highlighted in red. All validation errors will be highlighted and these should be rectified. When you are satisfied you have corrected the validation errors then the blue button marked ‘Allocate New NHS Number’ should be selected again.

If there are no errors the NHS Number will be allocated for the mother and a green banner indicating the NHS Number will be displayed. You have now moved automatically to the Birth Notification tab and the dark blue banner at the top of the screen displays the mother’s record (these are the details you have just entered).

GP practice

It is important to note that PDS, and through it SCRa or BNA cannot perform a GP registration. This means that when you allocate an NHS Number for a mother then she will have a GP practice code of ‘V81997’ allocated to her. This GP practice code means ‘Not Registered’.

You will be able to enter the birth notification if you have:

• traced for and found your mother’s record and subsequently selected the Birth Notification tab
• allocated the mother’s record

As you may not be using the BNA regularly we will break down the whole page into sections and go through each section with the different options.

Organisation Details

This section is used to describe the location where the delivery occurred and the child health unit(s) that need to know about the baby. This section is dynamic and, depending upon your choice of birth location, the fields that you need to enter will change. Select the type of Delivery Place first using the drop down menu.

Birth in an NHS organisation

If the baby is born in an NHS hospital then this is the section you will see the following details requested for:

You should enter the Organisation Data Service (ODS) code of the location where the birth took place in the 'Delivery Place Code Lookup' box. Then press the 'Check' button. The name of the organisation is now displayed below the code.

Please enter a Place of Birth, only one line of Town, County or Country is needed. County and Country can be selected from a drop down list.

Enter the Partner CHU details. You can either start to enter the code or the name - as you type a dynamic list of CHUs that match to your entered details are displayed for you to select from. The entry for the Responsible CHU is exactly the same.

Birth in a private hospital

If the baby is born in another medical facility that is not part of the NHS then this selection will require the following information:

You should enter either the name or the ODS code of the delivery location (the code must be checked after entry to ensure that it's on the ODS database). As the name will always be available we recommend that the name is always entered and the code entered if known (and verified).

Details for the place of birth and the child health units are as above.

Other places of birth

If the baby is born at home or it's not known where the baby was born then these details will be required.

You must enter either the name (or a description) of the delivery place. It may be beneficial to enter the ODS code of the hospital/maternity unit in the Associated Organisation Code as this may help identify where the baby was taken after birth.

Details for the place of birth and the child health units are as above.

Notifying person

These are the details of the person who is notifying the birth. They are taken directly from the user’s smartcard but may be amended if required. Please note that you will have to verify the Notifying Organisation Code before submitting the birth notification.

All of these fields are mandatory and must be entered.

Baby details

These are the details of the baby and the birth itself. Note that the mother’s surname is automatically copied into the field as this is normal practice. It's possible to amend the surname if required.

The date and time of birth cannot be in future.

The birth weight is in grams. A birth weight less than 100 will not be accepted. If you enter a birth weight that is regarded as outside the normal range then the following pop-up will be displayed:

This is only a warning that the weight entered may be incorrect. Please check the weight and if you have entered the correct value then continue.

All of the fields marked with a red asterisk (*) are mandatory.

Registering a death or a still birth

If the baby dies after birth then the birth should be recorded as 'Live' and a date and time of death entered.

If the baby is stillborn then the appropriate category should be selected. The date and time of death entered should be the same as that of the birth.

Baby’s usual address and contact details

These are the details that have been taken from the mother’s record. They can be amended if required.

Baby’s discharge address

If the baby is being discharged to an address other than that of the mother’s usual address then that address can be entered here.

A discharge address needs an effective until date. This should be no more than 1 month in the future.

Submitting the birth notification

All of the information for the birth is contained on one page. When all of the information is entered, press the red 'Submit' button. The page will then be validated and any errors displayed with a red banner which must be corrected before the birth notification can be submitted. If no errors are found then the details will be passed to the NHS Personal Demographics Service. An NHS Number will be allocated for the baby, the baby’s record will be created from the details entered and a relationship link called a Mother-Baby Link created between the mother and baby’s PDS Records (and vice versa).

The baby’s NHS Number will be returned to the BNA and displayed along with the complete birth notification, which may be printed if required. You can opt to enter another birth for the same mother or a different mother (the option for the same mother will only be available if the birth is a multiple birth). Pressing exit will return you to the 'Find a patient' screen.

If you press the blue 'Save' button then the birth notification will be saved without submitting. Saving the birth notification will not return you an NHS Number for the baby.

There may be times when you wish to notify a birth without allocating an NHS Number for the mother.

To do this you should still attempt to find the patient. If there are no matches to the criteria you entered, or multiple matches that are not the correct patient record, you can proceed to the birth notification without using a mother’s NHS Number. The option to do so is displayed in the  light blue banner (see figure 3 or figure 4 previously in this document).

The words 'Birth Notification' are the link to this process. Selecting the link will bring up a pop-up box to ensure that you wish to continue.

If you then select OK you will proceed to the Birth Notification screen. Please note that there is no dark blue banner that contains the mother’s details. You will need to enter the mother’s details in this screen (her name, date of birth and address), but no NHS Number is required.

All mandatory fields are marked with a red asterisk (*) and the name of the field is in bold. If any validation errors occur then the fields will be highlighted in red and you will not be allowed to continue.

Please note that if this action is performed there will be no mother-baby link created as the mother does not have an NHS Number and so will not have a PDS record.