Neonatal staff at The Royal Oldham to hold special public event

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at The Royal Oldham

Staff at the new Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at The Royal Oldham Hospital are to hold a special celebration event for local families from Oldham, Rochdale borough and surrounding areas on Sunday 17 November (between 1-4pm) to mark World Prematurity Day and the unit’s first year anniversary since it opened.

The afternoon event is open to the general public and particularly those parents and families who have experienced their children being born prematurely and who have been treated by the neonatal staff at the hospital.

The public are invited to meet staff and other parents in the hospital main entrance and at the Café Royal restaurant. Staff are planning a fundraising staff “Bake Off”, a tombola, a toy raffle and a competition to guess the weight of a baby cake.

As part of the event, The Royal Oldham Hospital hopes to set up a Royal Oldham Hospital Premature Baby Support Foundation for parents and families to meet and share their stories and experiences, and act as a support network.

Hospital staff work closely with Bliss, the UK’s special care baby charity, that helps care for premature and sick babies, supporting
families, funding research and in campaigning.

Nicky Park, sister on the neonatal unit at The Royal Oldham Hospital, reiterating the word of Bliss, said: “Every year 15 million babies Worldwide are boon too soon, 500,000 alone in Europe. This means that Europe has an increasing number of ex-preterm babies. Staff on the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at The Royal Oldham Hospital would like to raise awareness of prematurity in the UK by celebrating World Prematurity Day on Sunday 17 November between 1pm and 4pm in the main entrance.

“The occasion will be marked by a Great Neonatal Staff Bakeoff, toy tombola, raffle and general get together for their ex-preterms and any families (past or present) who have had babies who have spent time on the unit. Everybody is welcome to attend and all proceeds from donations made on the day will go towards the Neonatal Unit. It will be a fun and great afternoon.”

The Royal Oldham Hospital’s new £44m maternity unit and specialist neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) opened fully to patients on 3 December last year. The women and children’s facility includes a purpose-built four storey building, new antenatal wards, new labour delivery rooms, obstetric theatres, a midwife-led birth centre, postnatal rooms, a children’s unit and a brand new level 3 neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Around 5,300 babies are expected to be born each year at the maternity unit.

The new NICU is one of three specialist regional Level 3 neonatal centres providing the highest levels of intensive care to the smallest and most vulnerable babies in Greater Manchester.

Staff in the unit work closely with midwifes on the new maternity unit to ensure the quick and safe transfer of any extremely pre-term babies or poorly vulnerable babies born with complications. Women whose babies were born prematurely before 27 weeks would previously have been transferred out of the hospital, but can now receive specialist care on the unit. The unit now offers 37 cots including 9 intensive care, 9 high dependency and 19 special care cots.

Increased staffing on the unit has meant that staff are able to offer enhanced levels of care with long term therapies that were previously unavailable including high frequency oscillatory ventilation, inhaled nitric oxide therapy and therapeutic hypothermia, which involves total body cooling for babies that are born with complications arising from birth asphyxia.