Work has begun to make the premature and sick baby unit at Brighton’s Royal County Hospital a calmer and more spacious environment for babies and their families.
The Trevor Mann Baby Unit (TMBU) provides a specialist NHS department for the care of premature and sick newborn babies. The £350,000 project is being funded thanks to donations to BSUH Charity and its partner charity the Early Birth Association (EBA).
Calmer with more privacy
The refurbishments are being made after feedback from parents and clinical teams. Family accommodation, seating areas and bedrooms will all be improved through redecoration and sound-proofing to allow privacy during difficult times.
The changes will create more space for each baby’s cot, allowing more opportunity for parents to stay near their baby and have skin-to-skin care while in hospital. There will also be room to equip the unit with breast feeding chairs alongside special care cots.
TMBU matron Claire Hunt is delighted at the changes;
“With the improvements being made, the unit will be more suitable for our work as health professionals and will provide a better environment for the babies in our care and their families.
“My team is extremely grateful for the generosity of supporters of both BSUH Charity and Early Birth Association.”
Specially adapted rooms
One of the parent rooms with a shared wall with the intensive care nursery will be sound proofed ensuring the sound of beeps and alarms does not carry. Fittings will also be installed so that oxygen is available via connections in the wall, rather than the use of bulky cylinders.
The project also includes the transformation of a staff room into a quiet room for patients. Once completed, the room will provide a non-clinical environment away from the business of the nurseries in which parents can be given a quiet space for counselling or conversations regarding the direction of their baby’s care
The EBA donated £60,000 towards the work. Heidi Crawford is EBA’s co-chair;
“Everyone involved with the charity has first-hand experience of having a baby treated on one of the units, so have some understanding of other familie’s journeys and the emotional rollercoaster they are experiencing.”
How you can help
BSUH Charity has a designated fund for TMBU. The fund is managed by the team that help patients on the Unit.
Visit the website www.bsuh.nhs.uk/charity and reference TMBU when making your donation.
You can also find out more about the Early Birth Association and support them via their website http://earlybirth.co.uk/
