To create a welcoming, spacious & sustainable unit appropriate for significantly enhancing the clinical and developmental care of premature babies and their families

Space
Substantial increase in space by more than doubling the size of the unit.  The emphasis is on increasing the clinical space, enabling its safe & effective operation even when working at maximum capacity

Radical improvement in the ability to manage the unit effectively including logistics for movement of equipment / goods & improving visibility & extending the line of sight for all babies

Flexibility to accommodate evolving technological advances

Allocating appropriate space for a range of sensitive needs that are essential to excellent clinical & developmental care:

• Significantly increased & quality space for people (inc parents, relatives & siblings)
• Considerably increased space for sophisticated life-saving equipment
• Specialist procedure rooms
• Improved location & level of services to individual cot bays ie. piped gasses, electrical supply
• A 100% increase in parent accommodation (4 double rooms) permitting overnight stays
• Access for bedridden mothers, wheelchairs and specialised equipment (resuscitaire, X-Ray trolley, transport incubator etc)
• Privacy for treating babies in emergency situations
• Privacy for breast feeding
• Privacy for doctor / parent consultation
• Designated space for quiet contemplation
• Dedicated seminar room for education / training
• Provision of office space for NICU staff

Environment

• Well & easily maintained unit – demonstrating care & consideration
• Improved infection control through:
• Greater ease of cleaning
• Improved separation of ‘clean’/‘dirty’ areas
• Greater space between cots
• Improved design for effective hand washing
• Reduced operational costs with lower unit cost per square metre achieved through energy savings
• Improved control of heating / ventilation eg. reducing stress
• Improved external outlooks & garden area
• Maximum use of natural light
• Use of a ‘light shower’ to ‘rejuvenate’ staff working at night
• Reduced noise & light impacts on babies through installing appropriate materials (eg. rubber flooring) & equipment

NICU will be a case study for the next generation of healthcare buildings, a benchmark for best practice, allowing sustainability and whole life cost savings to be replicated