Posted by Anne-Sophie Hoffmoen - 29/02/2024
Happy Leap Day, and welcome to another edition of the SPN Newsletter – Issue 40 – for February 2024.
In case you didn’t know why we have a Leap Year every four years which adds another day on to the end of February and makes the convoluted “30 days has September…” recitation end a little awkwardly, never fear! You can find a factoid about it at the end of this message.
We know staff pressures remain high, with added pinches from financial challenges. We are, as ever, grateful for the time you take to engage with us and our workstreams, and strive to ensure your time has been well spent.
We had a bounty of feedback about our proposed new strategy and we are taking time to absorb it all. We will be seeking further thoughts and feedback from you, so watch this space! In the meantime you can read about other SPN goings on.
Scottish Perinatal Network Updates:
SAER Group
Transport Group
Opportunities to Get Involved
Perinatal Events Stack
National Maternity Network Updates:
Safeguarding
Maternal Medicine Group
Scottish Maternity Engagement Project
Opportunities to Get Involved
Maternity Events Stack
National Neonatal Network Updates:
Event – Empowering Neonatal AHPs across Scotland
Neonatal Planning Meeting
Monthly Grand Round
Neonatal Events Stack
SPN Strategic Partner & Other Updates:
Messages from Scottish Government, NHS Scotland Academy, Public Health Scotland, Healthcare Improvement Scotland (Neonatal Mortality Review), and NICE.
In the News
A Spotlight On… Down’s Syndrome Awareness Week and Down’s Syndrome Day
Thank you for reading! If you have any feedback, wish to receive the newsletter directly instead of via a colleague, or not receive it at all, please let us know.
With very best wishes for the rest of the Leap Day (and Year),
The SPN Team
Leap Years, what are they good for?
Well the cosmos utterly failed to take our convenience into account instead of programming the Earth’s orbit around the sun to fit neatly into 365 of what we call “days”, it’s more like 365 days… and 6 hours. Ish.* Very simplified, every four years we have an “extra” 24 hours built up, so why not make a day of it (literally!). Well, in the Gregorian calendar, anyway, there are some calendars which don’t take it into account at all, and others which mitigate for it in other ways.
*Want less “ish”? it’s actually 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds.