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177 A ied Heal Services NMH Annual Rep t | 2020 Ciara Ryan, Clinical Specialist Physiotherapist, Womens Health and Continence. T he Physiotherapy Department had an increasingly busy year in 2020 with over 3,370 new patient referrals. This continues to reflect a pattern of increased demand for physiotherapy services observed with the introduction of the Maternal Newborn Clinical Management System (MN-CMS). This demand drives the shape of our service leading to our increased provision of group classes to try and reach our service users in a timely way. We began the year with a whole time equivalent of 4.6, with one member of staff commencing a career break. We received news in early 2020 that funding was received to recruit two Clinical Specialist Pelvic Health Physiotherapists to support the NMH Gynaecology Services. During the year Aoife Cullen and Ciara Ryan were appointed in these posts. We recruited a Neonatal Senior Physiotherapist, Eithne Lennon, to fill the post of the member of staff on career break. This increased our whole time equivalent to 7 and improved our gynaecology and neonatal services. We continue to provide a 0.4 service to the Pelvic Floor Centre located in St. Michael's Hospital. Over the course of the year, Sarah Mullins and Aoife Magner also joined the team to backfill vacancies. The Physiotherapy Team provide: • A referral based Physiotherapy service to all inpatients Monday - Friday. • An outpatient clinic offering appointments Monday- Friday for musculoskeletal conditions and issues relating to pelvic floor dysfunction. • A neonatal service five days weekly. • Ongoing delivery of the hospital antenatal and postnatal education programme alongside our colleagues from Midwifery and Nutrition and Dietetics. • A range of education sessions to facilitate early assessment and timely access to physiotherapy services e.g. Pelvic Girdle Pain Class, Pelvic Floor Care Class & Healthy Bodies after Birth Class. • A service to the multidisciplinary Pelvic Floor Centre team based in St. Michaels Hospital every Monday and Wednesday. The Impact of COVID-19 The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the immediate delivery of our services. A decision was made to cease all face-to-face services from March - May while we awaited further guidance. This allowed us to develop an on-line learning portal which replaced the regular antenatal classes and to develop educational resources for our patients e.g. new improved and comprehensive information and video resources. Our service expanded to provide telehealth via phone Physio erapy calls and video consults. With appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) provisions in place and a reconfiguring of our department, we reestablished face-to-face appointments from May. Our services now involve an immediate triage upon referral, email contact with the relevant resources, telehealth and if required a face-to-face consult. This process change has meant a safer, more efficient and timely service for patients. There were 3,370 referrals to the Department during the year. Department activity is reviewed under 3 headings: Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Neonatology. Patients are seen either as inpatients on the obstetric (antenatal and postnatal), gynaecology or neonatal wards, or as outpatients in the Physiotherapy Department. Some patients may require just one visit whilst others may require a number of treatment sessions. Our Physiotherapy Department is located on the 2 nd floor of 65 Mount St.