This month we marked the launch of a project to support people at high risk of developing hypertension in pregnancy by hosting a collaboration and networking event in Gloucestershire, bringing together initiative partners, healthcare practitioners, patients and public from across the West of England.
‘HOme Monitoring for Expectant (and postnatal) parents’ (HOME) is an evidence-based, remote monitoring pathway designed to enhance care for people at high risk of developing hypertension during pregnancy, empowering them to stay healthy and well at home. It offers a remote blood pressure monitoring service using a digital system and home-based monitoring equipment. This enables early detection and intervention, while reducing the need for frequent in-person hospital visits.
Initially developed by Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in 2017, HOME (previously known as Go Flo) was the successful innovation selected from our Evidence into Practice call in 2024. We are now supporting its rollout across all hospital trusts in the West of England in 2025.
The launch event brought together clinicians including midwives and obstetric consultants, and service users from across those trusts to plan the service rollout, considering what it is like to be pregnant and at risk of developing or having developed hypertension, exploring ideas to address any potential challenges and areas of focus for the project evaluation.
Health Innovation West of England’s Clinical Lead, Dr Febin Basheer, spoke at the event about ‘hypertension diagnosis and management-key insights’. Febin said: “Hypertension affects around 8% to 10% of all pregnant women and can be associated with complications for both the mother and baby. This is why people at high risk are recommended to have additional checks during pregnancy. At Great Western Hospitals, HOME has been used to offer better care for women and their unborn babies by providing care closer to home, optimising hypertension treatment and giving pregnant women greater choice and control over their health.
“This event was a great opportunity to bring together healthcare professionals and service users from all trusts involved in the project to discuss the HOME pathway and how we can effectively roll it out more widely to maximise its impact and the benefits for pregnant women across the region.”
In addition to improving care for pregnant women and their unborn babies, HOME brings many benefits to NHS trusts and the environment.
Zoe Daggatt-Powrie, Clinical Fellow on the Chief Sustainability Officer’s Clinical Fellow Scheme at Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, was a guest speaker at the event. Zoe explained: “Implementing HOME at Great Western resulted in a reduction in face-to-face appointments and hospital admissions and stays. This, in turn, reduced the financial and resource costs for the Trust, which also has a positive impact on the environment by reducing the carbon footprint of both staff and service user travel and transport usage.
“Modelling of data from 2023 shows that as a result of our use of HOME every year our outpatient service saves 1,248 face-to-face appointments, 312 clinical hours, and 118 acute unit appointments. The reduced travel requirements result in an annual carbon emissions reduction of over 22,000kg CO2e – the equivalent of four return premium economy flights from London to Hong Kong.
“In this way, the effective implementation of HOME also supports our NHS Net Zero ambitions through a reduction in carbon emissions. We’re excited about being able to achieve this level of carbon reductions when we roll out HOME across other hospital trusts.”
You can find out more about the HOME project here
Posted on March 12, 2025
