The Neonatal Units in NHS Lothian cares for premature and sick babies. 1 in 7 babies born will need support from the Neonatal team. Babies can be admitted to neonatal care for a number of reasons, including when they:
· Are born early – 1 baby in 13 is born early, and babies born before 34 weeks may need extra help with breathing, feeding and keeping warm
· Are very small and have a low birth weight
· Have an infection
· Have a mother who has diabetes
· Have jaundice
· Had a very difficult birth
· Are waiting for, or recovering from surgery
NHS Lothian Neonatal units consist of 2 sites:
· Our largest is at the Simpson Centre based within the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE) and is a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and admits around 850 infants per year. We are a busy unit with a maximum capacity of 39 neonatal cots split between.
o 9 intensive care cots,
o 8 high dependency cots
o 22 special care cots.
There are exciting plans to expand our Simpson NICU as part of the ‘Best Start’ re-modelling as we have been identified as 1 of 3 NICU’s in Scotland. We have ambitious plans to deliver cutting edge healthcare and have a redevelopment plan in place to re-design our family facilities. We hope to enhance our Family Integrated Care (FICare) we deliver. Additionally, we are committed to achieving BLISS baby charter and received the Pledge of Improvement in February 2023.
· Our other unit is based at St. Johns Hospital in Livingston and is a Special Care Unit (SCU), West Lothian has around 200 admissions per year and has a maximum capacity of 10 cots which is split between
o 2 stabilisation cots
o 2 High Dependency cots
o 8 Special Care cots
Each level of care has its own admission criteria as follows.
Level 1 care is termed as special care and generally all babies born at 32 to 36 weeks gestation will be admitted for this level of care. Many of these babies require support in feeding, may require a small amount of oxygen or need regular electronic monitoring of vital signs for their condition. Babies who are cared for in high dependency will eventually move to Special Care when they are well enough.
Level 2 is high dependency care. All babies born between 28 and 32 weeks gestation require this level of care. Other babies requiring Level 2 care will include those that no longer need intensive care or those that require more specialist treatments such as non invasive oxygen therapy, intravenous nutrition or monitoring for seizure activity. Extremely premature babies who are cared for in NICU will eventually move to HDU when they are well enough.
Level 3 (intensive care) is for all babies born at less than 28 weeks gestation. These babies are likely to need continuous and complex intravenous infusions, advanced breathing support (possibly with a ventilator) or have blood borne infections requiring antibiotic treatment. Additionally, the Simpson NICU caters for babies that sometimes require laser eye treatment due to their extreme prematurity.
We are seeking Registered Nurses qualified in either:
· Child Health – Newly qualified or with experience in another specialty
· Adult Nurses who have critical care experience
We are looking for passionate, caring, motivated people to join our highly skilled neonatal teams. You will be joining friendly, high performing units. We have state-of-the art facilities placing us at the heart of cutting edge health care. Neonatal Services continues to be committed to delivering the best patient care using the best clinical knowledge and technology available. We have achieved Level 3 Baby Friendly Initiative accreditation by UNICEF.
