Given our aim, and that the nature of the NICU environment can have such an impact on the well being and development of premature babies, it is of the utmost concern that Bath NICU has critical problems with its existing building.  It lacks the adequate space and environment for the very important tasks that we need to undertake to support the lives within our 21 baby cots and achieve our aim.

Since being built in the 1970’s, the Bath NICU building now struggles to house vital developments in this special area of care, not least the use of larger, more sophisticated incubators and monitoring equipment.  Conditions are very cramped and environmentally unsuitable, creating real difficulties for the clinical and developmental care our doctors and nurses wish to provide to ensure these vulnerable patients successfully grow. 

Current Special Care Room

Current Intensive Care Room

Examples include:

• Four incubators fill a room suitable for just one
•  Any crisis with a baby in NICU has to be handled in front of other families, increasing anxiety about their own baby
• New mothers face difficulties in successfully breast feeding in busy operational areas which offer no privacy (inhibiting their baby’s development)
•  Critical developmental techniques by parents such as ‘kangaroo care’ are extremely difficult, if not impossible
• Ambient temperatures, lighting and noise, so crucial to successful infant development, are difficult to control
•  In a setting where many babies already have respiratory conditions, the toxicity of building materials, fabrics, and cleaning materials are difficult to control
• Ability to undertake private discussions, counselling, research or teach others (paediatric nurses, physios etc) is compromised.

Our NICU doctors and nurses are leading the new developmental care plans and will thrive on both the challenges ahead and the benefits to be gained.  But it is clear that the space and environmental constraints make the current Unit inflexible to further advances and achieving our mission of providing the very best care

A solution has to be found.