ANSC December 2021 Update: RPA Women and Babies/Canterbury Hospital

Key contact information for clinical support:

Please remember for any urgent clinical concerns regarding your patients, including scan results which require hospital review, please contact the hospital on-call O&G Registrar or Staff Specialist via hospital switch:

– RPA Hospital (02) 9515 6111

– Canterbury Hospital (02) 9787 0000

The hospital GP Liaison Midwife phone line is available for routine clinical advice and support:

– 0425 230 662 (Mon-Fri 8:00am-4:30pm)

New ANSC Schedule of Visits 

The SLHD revised COVID-19 ANSC Schedule of Visits has recently been updated. Please refer to the new schedule for ongoing patient care. The new schedule and supporting resources are available on the CESPHN maternal health website and on Sydney Health Pathways.

· Revised antenatal schedule of visits (November 2021)

· GP Summary Guide (November 2021)

RPA Birth Centre:

A GP referral letter is required for all women booking into the Birth Centre at RPA Hospital. Please remember to provide your patients with their obstetrics referral letter prior to their booking appointment if they are choosing this model of care.

All antenatal forms are accessed on the CESPHN RPA/Canterbury ANSC page including details on how to input forms into Medical Director and Best Practice. See links to the obstetrics referral form below:

• PDF
• Medical Director
• Best Practice

Note this is a standardised referral form to commence antenatal care. It is not the hospital booking in form. For hospital bookings, women are required to complete the First Antenatal Visit On-line Booking Form

New: Canterbury Hospital Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy Clinic

A new Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy (HDP) Clinic has opened at Canterbury Hospital. This clinic will be run by two renal physicians, Dr Lucy Wynter and A/Prof Adrian Gillin, who will be working closely with the Canterbury Obstetric department. Dr Wynter is a Clinical Academic and nephrologist at Canterbury hospital and will be working alongside A/Prof Gillin, who ran the HDP clinic at Royal Prince Alfred for nearly 30 years.

The clinic has commenced consultations via internal referrals and will expand to start accepting GP referrals in 2022. Further information including referral criteria and contact information will be included in the next ANSC newsletter, CESPHN website and Sydney HealthPathways.

Case study: Management of underactive thyroid in pregnancy

Melissa is a 35yo woman who presents to the GP after having a positive urine pregnancy test at 7+2 weeks gestation by LMP. She has had 1 previous early miscarriage and has no significant past medical history. She is taking no regular medications and no supplements. Should thyroid function screening be included as part of her routine antenatal blood tests?

For full case study – click here