Derriford Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) team based at Derriford Hospital have been awarded the prestigious Bliss Baby Charter Gold Award. Multiple audits and a recent pre-assessment meeting found the care given to families and babies to be exemplary.
The NICU team at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust cares for babies born in Plymouth and other hospitals in the South West Peninsula who are born much earlier than expected (preterm) or who require intensive care if they are very sick when born at full term.
Derriford NICU has been involved with Bliss, the charity for premature and sick babies, since 2017. After initially achieving a pledge of improvement in 2019, the team went on to be awarded the Bronze Award in 2021 and most recently the Silver Award in May 2022. Plymouth NICU has become only the 11th unit in the UK to achieve Gold Accreditation out of 175.
Róisín McKeon-Carter, the Baby Charter lead and Neonatal Nurse consultant at UHP, said:
“Neonatal Services in Derriford are thrilled to have been recognised and rewarded for our family centred care by receiving the Bliss Gold Award. As a team we have been working on the charter audit since 2017 which has given us focus to achieve the various standards and stages set.
“Bliss Bronze was awarded in 2021, Silver in 2022 and Gold in 2023. Our challenge is to have momentum and in three years’ time, we can submit our audit to achieve Bliss Platinum.
Róisín continued: “We would like to thank the parents and staff who have all contributed to us achieving the award. The greatest ‘prize’ is that our Peninsula families, during the assessment, articulated how well supported and cared for they are here in Derriford Hospital”.
The evaluation from the Bliss Baby Charter states that the team’s overall RAG (Red- Amber-Green) ratings is 98.6%, and that they demonstrate having sufficient processes and facilities in place to deliver high quality, family-centred care.
The report also said that staff at Derriford NICU are dedicated to providing the best possible service in line with the principles of family centred care, and that parents are seen as part of our multidisciplinary team, not visitors, and actively supported by staff to become the primary carer for their baby.
Additionally, feedback from parents on the day was extremely positive regarding both the care of their baby and the support families have received from staff practically and emotionally.
Dr Oladipo Aworinde, Consultant Neonatologist and Service Line Clinical Director, said: “It is a source of pride for us that family integrated care is not just a theoretical principle, but a reality of what we do. Our staff go over and above to ensure that we deliver the best holistic care we can provide.
“Having family members as integral parts of our team helps us to remember that each child and each family are unique and different. This is why our parents and families also must be applauded for what they commit to, while going through some of the hardest times of their lives. This award is dedicated to all who are involved in the care of these precious babies, and to many more years ahead of exceeding expectations.”
Bliss Baby Charter programme officer, Anna Moore, and Volunteer Assessors, Lynne Wainwright and Claire Grey, were impressed by many aspects of the unit’s care, but the following elements stood out in particular:
• A very cohesive and passionate senior team who have substantial non-clinical time
• The availability of a dedicated bereavement lead and outreach sister who has undergone a counselling course and is continuing to develop the service by training bereavement link nurses
• The compassionate and sensitive delivery of individualised bereavement support, including memory making, home visits with the bereavement lead and a consultant, and supporting bereaved mothers to donate their milk amongst many other initiatives
• Ability to support parents whose baby was on end of life care to have family time in the Secret Garden and enable their wishes for their baby to experience being outside before dying
• Outreach support is excellent, facilitated by a dedicated team who are introduced to parents at an early stage
Parents have also expressed their gratitude to the team, one saying: “Words cannot express how wonderful the NICU team have been with us since having our twins at 30 weeks. The whole experience from the beginning was very overwhelming and frightening, but the team from the start were always there for you and helped us become involved as much as we wanted to with their cares.
“They taught us how to hand hold and comfort them when they were too small to come out of the incubators and encouraged cuddles as soon as they were well enough and explained all the benefits, so we understood the importance of them!”
To find out more about Plymouth NICU visit www.plymouthhospitals.nhs.uk/nicu
