1. Objectives Methods ‘ Whooley’ questions were provided to all clinical staff from July 2011. Retrospectively, a random sample of patients who presented to our triage department or obstetric wards over a 2 week period were identified. Hospital notes were reviewed to ascertain whether the right questions were being asked. Patient responses to the questions were also analysed. Discussion ‘Although ‘Whooley’ questions were completed by nearly all pregnant women on our wards or in our triage department, we did recognise that a small group of these women were missed. We noted that most of the group we missed was solely due to the fact that forms were not made available on our wards. Other reasons may have included patients declining or poor understanding from some staff of the importance of screening our patients. ‘Whooley’ questions also appeared to encourage women to talk about their past mental health illness, thus being a significant risk factor for them to develop mental health problems during their current pregnancy. The main reason for women citing a mental health problem was due to depression, which the ‘Whooley’ questions were able to sensitively detect, allowing the facilitation of early intervention by means of referral to the relevant mental health teams. Results The vast majority of patients were successfully screened using ‘Whooley’ questions. Figure 1: Illustrating the proportion of patients who were screened with ‘Whooley’ questions within the 2 week audit period. As indicated here, 89% (108 patients) were successfully screened using ‘Whooley’ questions compared to the 11% (13 patients) who were missed. ‘Whooley’ questions were able to screen for past mental health conditions in pregnant women. Figure 2:Depicting the proportion of patients who suffered from past mental health illness. 12% (13 patients) had suffered from previous mental health problems compared to 88% (95 patients) who had no relevant past medical history. ‘Whooley’ questions can potentiate early intervention. Figure 3: The proportion of respondents offered referral to a mental health clinic. All patients who were thought to be at risk of developing a mental health illness during their current pregnancy (5%) were referred onwards to a mental health clinic within 8 weeks of screening. Conclusions ‘Whooley’ questions appear to have a role in successfully identifying those at high risk of developing a mental health problem during their current pregnancy. Early intervention in those who are at risk is key, and care must be taken to ensure that all women are screened during all three trimesters of their pregnancy. This in turn could significantly reduce maternal mortality in this group. Assessing perinatal health Are we asking the right questions? Ahmad Z. 1, Ishag S. 2, Palamarachuk T. 2, Thamban S. 2 1 Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, 2 Whipps Cross Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust, East London The aim of this study was to utilise a validated 2 question screening tool; 'Whooley' questions, in order to assess and identify the risk of pregnant women developing mental health problems within our trust hospital. References 1.Drife J. 'Why Mothers Die' J R Coll Phys Edinb 2005; 35: 332-336 2.CG45 Antenatal and postnatal mental health, Nice Clinical Guidelines, February 2007