Work was set to get underway today on Bradford Royal Infirmary’s new £2m neonatal unit.
These artist’s impressions show how the state-of-the-art unit will look once the expansion and refurbishment is completed in a year.
Parents of babies who received treatment on the unit have been heavily involved in the building’s re-design and were due to join doctors and nurses to celebrate the start of construction work.
Caroline Bello-Osagie, from Bierley, Bradford, was to be given the honour of cutting the first sod.
The mum-of-three and her husband, Kehinde, found the process of helping to create the improved facility helped ease the grief of losing their baby girl, Aisosa, who was born at just 25 weeks and two days in July, 2012 after Caroline went into premature labour.
Aisosa, who weighed just 670 grams, spent three weeks and two days in the intensive care unit before dying due to complications arising from her extreme prematurity.
Caroline said: “The new unit will be a huge leap forward for Bradford and for the staff, babies and families who pass through it.
“While the care from the neonatal staff was second-to-none, we felt the accommodation was old, cramped and in need of refurbishment so being part of this new build has been an incredibly positive experience and I feel that, despite Aisosa only being on the unit for a relatively short length of time, she will now live on in the other babies who will come to use it.”
Johanna Mayén, from Bierley, also helped design the new neonatal unit.
Johanna’s daughter, Gabriela Makulova-Mayén, was born at 25 weeks and five days and spent 22 weeks at the Bradford Neonatal Unit. Thanks to the Nurses and Doctors, Johanna said, Gabriela is now a thriving one-year-old.
Johanna, said: “Now that the building work is actually happening, I am really pleased for the families and the staff.”
Clinical services manager, Sarah Spzara, said: “Over the past five years we have cared for more than 2,500 babies from around the Yorkshire and Humber region and we are delighted that some of these parents, who were involved in re-designing our new building, have come along today to celebrate this important event with us.
“Our families are the single most important thing to us and it will be great to see how a newly improved and enhanced environment for every baby in need of our expert care, will help us to deliver the best conditions for our patients.”
The investment includes the opening of two new intensive care cots, with space for a further two to be opened in the future.
The enlarged unit will have ensuite family bedrooms, a play area within a new relatives sitting room and a counselling suite. There will also be a dedicated room for mothers to express breast milk for their pre-term babies.
The unit currently provides care for up to 27 babies at any one time and is regularly full.
The unit has five intensive care cots, five high dependency cots and 17 low dependency cots. Babies delivered in other hospitals are often transferred to the unit for the highest levels of intensive care.
Clinical lead for neonatology, Dr Sunita Seal, said: “Involving parents in the unit’s design was crucial as it gives us a real insight into what our families go through and how we need to adjust, not just our practices, but also our unit, to help meet their needs.”