Barriers to attendance at a tertiary hospital's perinatal mortality meeting

Perinatal mortality multi-disciplinary team meetings (PM-MDTMs) offer a forum for multi-disciplinary discussion of poor perinatal outcomes. They ensure a thorough understanding of individual cases and present an important learning opportunity for healthcare professionals (HCPs). Attendance at PM-MDTMs in this tertiary maternity hospital has been low.

We aimed to identify barriers which may be targeted to improve attendance and engagement.

An anonymous questionnaire was developed, and all HCPs invited to participate. Demographic data on respondents was collected, as was knowledge of PM-MDTMs, their purpose and relevance to clinical practice, and barriers to attendance at meetings. A total of 78 responses were obtained and analysed.

Self-reported understanding of the purpose and format PM-MDTMs was high (84.6% (66/78) and 65.4% (51/78), respectively), while only 50% (39/78) of respondents provided an accurate description of either. Only 50% (39/78) reported having attended a meeting in the hospital, of whom 61.5% (24/39) described the correct meeting. Of these, 37.5% (9/24) reported attending regularly and 70.8% (17/24) found the meeting relevant to their clinical practice. Of the 33.33% (26/78) who reported attending a PM-MDTM in another hospital, 73.1% (19/26) accurately described the meeting, 63.1% (12/19) of these attended regularly, and 100% (19/19) found it relevant. Three main qualitative themes emerged as barriers to attendance and were areas for suggested improvements: workload and staffing levels, meeting logistics, and lack of communication and education regarding PM-MDTMs.

Communication regarding PM-MDTMs and their learning opportunities needs to improve. Lack of engagement is likely compounded by high workloads and staffing levels, but these issues should be surmountable.