Issue link: http://digitaleditions.uberflip.com/i/1388210
169 A ied Heal Services NMH Annual Rep t | 2020 Hilary Devine, Clinical Specialist Dietitian delivering online education for women with diabetes. T he Department of Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics provides a dietetic service for Maternity (including Diabetes in Pregnancy) and Neonatology Services. There is a limited service for gynaecology patients. The most significant theme of 2020 was a rapid adaptation of our service to meet patient's needs under the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The flexibility of all members of the team and their generous move to new ways of working was key to ensuring continuity and extension of services. Since 2018, we had a 'Digital Transformation Strategy' for the department and had established telehealth clinics for women with hyperemesis, gestational diabetes and for parents of neonates. This helped us to quickly adapt all of our group education to be delivered via webinar and to migrate all outpatient appointments to telehealth. The team supported this service adaptation and also assisted other multi-disciplinary teams with the technical changes needed. One of the team was temporarily redeployed to help develop the NMH e-learning hub. The work of our administrator was central to the success of telehealth. In line with the NMH COVID-19 response, the team also changed working hours and days to accommodate safe working. Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics As the year progressed, face-to-face consultations were re-introduced alongside continued use of digital tools. Initial engagement with telehealth was very high, and women and parents reported a high degree of satisfaction with remote consultations. Although engagement decreased somewhat towards the end of the year, the majority of dietetic consultations continued to be via telehealth, and a 'blended' mix of face-to-face and telehealth consultations will continue according to patients' need and preference. The department facilitated clinical placement of two MSc dietitian students in October and one for a catering training placement in September. Despite COVID-19 restrictions, a very effective learning environment was achieved by our student coordinator with the support of the whole team. The team also supported significant changes to practice in delivery of the diabetes service and worked closely with the diabetes specialist midwives throughout. For the neonatal dietitians, the focus remains babies born very preterm or very low birth weight (VLBW) admitted to the Neonatal Unit. These continue to increase in complexity. Other babies with nutritional concerns requiring dietetic input were also followed-