'Keeping sick babies alive is hard. In the back of a moving ambulance, it's even harder' ; IN THE THIRD OF OUR SERIES ON LEICESTER'S NEONATAL TEAM, CATHY BUSS A day does not go by without the phone ringing for a very special ambulance. MEETS THE MAN IN CHARGE OF THE CENTRE FOR NEONATAL TRANSPORT [Edition 2]
At the end of the line is a doctor requesting transport to move some the smallest and sickest babies from one hospital to another.
In charge of the Centre for Neonatal Transport is nurse consultant Andy Leslie.
He heads the team which is based at Leicester Royal Infirmary and Nottingham City Hospital.
Three teams are on duty each day, while there is one team working at night.
Andy, 48, has been a neonatal nurse for 25 years - the past three as nurse consultant.
He said: "There is great satisfaction in doing a good job.
"The sense of difficulty and alienation that families go through when their baby is born early or is very sick is difficult.
"It is good to be able to help people through that.
"It is very satisfying to be able to care for not just our little patients, but for their families as well." The specialist neonatal transport service was set up in April 2010 to provide cover for 14 neonatal units in East Midlands and part of the West Midlands.
Andy said: "It is so much better now we have a dedicated service. "Before that, whoever was available would go out in an ambulance but, of course, that meant taking away staff from the neonatal unit where they were working.
"It was a problem right across the country."
The dedicated teams now transport between 1,200 and 1,300 babies a year.
The service, hosted by Leicester's hospitals, costs about Pounds 1.7 million a year to run.
Andy said: "About two-thirds of the babies are going back to hospitals nearer their homes after specialist treatment, while the others are transported between hospitals for specialist tests."
The ambulances which transport the babies are each fully kitted out to cater for the poorly young patients.
There are four fully-equipped transport trolleys and a specialist doctor and specialist nurse travel with each patient.
Each trolley is about the same size as an ordinary ambulance trolley but contains all the equipment which is needed to look after a very sick child.
The equipment includes infusion pumps so medication can be carried out intravenously, monitors so that all the patient's vital signs can be continuously watched and a ventilator to help them breathe. Andy said: "It is all the intensive care equipment you need to look after the patient.
"Keeping sick babies needing intensive care alive is hard to do. Doing it in the back of an ambulance which is moving is even harder.
"Keeping them warm is difficult at the best of times, but moving them into an ambulance on a cold night presents even more challenges.
"The service we now provide is fantastic."
Was your baby cared for by the neonatal team? You can leave a message of thanks at our website.
We will print as many as we can in the newspaper and online. www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk FACTFILE: ONE IN 10 BABIES NEED TEAM'S EXPERT CARE ABOUT 1,200 babies were treated by the neonatal team in Leicester last year.
There were 750 admissions at Leicester Royal Infirmary and 450 at Leicester General. Babies treated include the premature and those who suffer complications at birth.
About one in 10 babies will need the care and expertise of the team. Some will be on the unit for a day or two, others spend months being cared for.
The Pounds 9.3 million unit at Leicester Royal Infirmary, which is the lead neonatal centre in the region, opened in September 2010.
"It is so much better now that we have a dedicated service" Andy Leslie
A service of YellowBrix, Inc.
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