How to support us and Other relevant information

The Neonatal unit is always looking to improve its services. Extra funds are constantly required over and above that provided by the NHS to ensure education and training of staff, replace or purchase new equipment and to improve facilities available to staff and parents on the unit.

The neonatal endowment fund is a registered charity and is looking for enthusiastic fundraisers. You can raise and donate money to this fund either for a specific purpose or add to the pool of this fund to be used as per unit’s requirements.

For more information please contact Mrs Helen James, Lead Nurse (Helen.James16@wales.nhs.uk), or Dr Sujoy Banerjee, Lead Clinician for Neonatal Services (Sujoy.Banerjee@wales.nhs.uk)

Visiting Policy

We have an open visiting policy for parents. This means parents can visit at any time of the day or night and stay as long as they wish. Parents can be present when their baby is discussed on the Ward Rounds. However, to maintain confidentiality of other families, we may ask you to leave the NICU during ward rounds, medical and nursing handovers. Nursing handover takes place at the cot side between 07:00 and 07:30hrs and again between 19:00 and 19:30hrs. We may also ask you to leave when emergency or sterile procedures are undertaken in adjacent areas.

Please respect the decision of the clinicians during such periods and your cooperation is greatly appreciated. Please stay at or near your baby’s cot side. Please do not ask us any questions about other babies within the unit as we are unable to share this information with you. We respect everyone’s right to confidentiality.

You may bring other visitors/family members with you to visit your baby, but we ask that you restrict this to two people at a time at your baby’s cot side. (Including one parent). Please also note that we will not allow any other visitors onto the neonatal unit unless either parents are present or accompanying them. After 2030 hrs we ask all other visitors to leave so that parents have some time together just with their baby.

Our policies are intended to avoid overcrowding and cross- infection in vulnerable babies within the neonatal unit. Under exceptional circumstances, special permission may be granted to other visitors by the attending consultant or the lead neonatal nurse.

All visitors must wash their hands and use the sanitizer on entering and leaving the unit.

You are asked not to visit the unit if you or your visitors have any infectious conditions such as:

Coughs, Colds or Flu like symptoms
Vomiting or Diarrhoea
Any other infectious conditions, such as Chicken Pox

If you are unsure or have any concerns regarding infection prevention and control issues, please speak to the nurse in charge of the unit.

Restrictions to visiting may be put in place for infection prevention and control purposes on the recommendation of the clinical or infection control team.

How to get here

The Neonatal Unit is located on the 5^th Floor of the Women and Children’s’ Block adjacent to the delivery suite.

Address

Singleton Hospital

Sketty Lane

Sketty

Swansea

SA2 8QA

NICU Reception Tel: 01792285403

SAT NAV users - please use postcode SA2 8QA

Parking

There are free car parks available at Singleton. They are clearly marked at the entrance.

Family Accommodation

Family accommodation is limited on the unit and is prioritised according to need by the clinical team. For e.g. parents of babies rooming in before discharge or to families of children who are very ill. We try very hard to accommodate family’s request regarding accommodation at Singleton site but this is not guaranteed at present. The situation changes very rapidly and sometimes you may be asked to look for alternative accommodation.

We have two family rooms on the neonatal unit adjacent to the Special Care area (SHIPS) with shared bathroom facilities. The rooms have a double bed, TV and tea/coffee making facilities. There are two additional family bedrooms on the 4^th floor on the same block but without any en-suite facilities.

We have 5 one bedroom houses available within the hospital grounds for families who are based out of our local area. These are allocated according to the need of the family and their child. The final decision regarding the allocation rests with the senior management team who has an overview of the needs of the service.

Food and vending facilities

At Singleton Hospital there is a restaurant on site on the first floor of the main hospital building. There is also a Costa Coffee shop near the main outpatient entrance. Vending machines for snacks and drinks are available throughout the hospital premises. The nearest vending machine to the neonatal unit is in front of the lifts on the fifth floor.

Restaurant Opening Times at Singleton, Swansea

Monday to Friday:

Breakfast - 0730 to 11.00 hrs

Lunch – 1200 to 1400 hrs

Dinner - 1730 to 1930 hrs

Saturday, Sunday and Bank holidays:

Breakfast – 0815 to 1100 hrs

Lunch - 1200 to 1400 hrs

Dinner - 1430 to 1540 hrs

Coffee Shop:

Monday to Friday:

0930 to 1630 hrs

Closed on Weekends and Bank Holidays

On request, parents can obtain an authorisation slip on both units that entitles them to a 10% discount on food purchased in the restaurant.

Cash machine

There is a cash machine on site at Singleton Hospital in the restaurant. No charges are made for withdrawal by debit cards.

Parental responsibilities

We actively encourage parents to do as much day-to-day care for their babies as their condition allows. We encourage breastfeeding and mothers of premature and full term babies will be encouraged to express breast milk for their babies to receive once they are well enough to be fed (which in the majority of cases will be within the first 24 hours of life).

Parents are expected to bring in suitable clothing and nappies for their babies to use whilst on the unit – for specific advice on what your baby requires you should speak to your neonatal nurse looking after your baby.

Examples of what types of care parents can participate in:

Nappy changing
Mouth care
Washing
Helping to change bedding
Feeding – Expressing breast milk, both oral feeding (breast/bottle) and nasogastric tube feeding
Skin-to-skin care

Ward rounds

All parts of the neonatal unit will have a daily ward round by the medical team. This team will consist of the Consultant attending for the week, some junior members of the medical team (such as Neonatal Registrars, Advanced Neonatal Nurse Practitioners, Specialty Trainees in Paediatrics and Clinical Fellows), the Senior Nurse in charge of the Neonatal Unit and Medical Students.

The ward round in the morning will prioritise the sickest babies – taking handover from the night staff and making a plan for the care required in the coming day. We encourage parents to be present during this ward round for the discussions regarding their baby, we have noise cancelling headphones which we will ask you to wear if you are remaining with your baby in order to maintain confidentiality. If you have specific questions regarding your babies care it is useful to be present during the ward round or make an appointment to speak to the Consultant if your questions are not answered by the nursing staff or medical staff available.

Research and audit

As a responsible professional group, we are continually looking to improve the standard of care using evidence based practice. As a professional group, we often conduct or participate in ethically approved clinical trials that aims to answer important questions related to care of the newborn infant. Your child can only be entered in a trial with your informed written consent. Sometimes, doctors and nurses may approach with information regarding the ongoing clinical trials.

Participation in a clinical trial is entirely voluntary and your decision regarding this does not affect the care your baby receives on the unit. Examples of important multicentre trails that Singleton Hospital participated in recently are SIFT, BOOST 2, TOBY, and PROGRAMS. The information and summary results of some of these studies are freely available on the web.

As a quality improvement activity, the department undertakes regular audit of its clinical practice comparing with established or agreed national /local standards. Any information collected for this purpose is analysed anonymously and recommendations implemented to continually improve standards of care.