Dr Kathy Mclean visits some of Nottinghamshire’s smallest patients on tour of the new Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at QMC

Dr Kathy McLean, Chair of NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire’s Integrated Care Board, visited the newly opened Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC) recently.

Kathy spoke to staff and saw how new systems and ways of working had been embedded.

Rachel Boardman, Director of Nursing and People for Family Health, Lleona Lee, Neonatal Consultant and Zara Doubleday, Neonatal Matron, showed Kathy around and talked her through the improvements, from the calming reception sky lighting to the sound proofed flooring across the unit.

Costing £32million and designed to be a home-from-home for babies and their families, the NICU at QMC is the largest in the East Midlands in terms of cots and footprint, with carefully thought-out areas such as quiet family rooms, play areas for older siblings and glazed screens between bays for increased privacy.

Rachel Boardman, Director of Nursing and People for Family Health said: “We discussed with Kathy the learning from this unit that we have been able to take forward into other projects, such as our Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, which has recently been refurbished.

“By carrying out a project as large as the NICU expansion and approaching it the way we did, we have been able to learn so much and look at different ways of working for other areas in the hospital too.”

Visiting the specially designed side rooms of the NICU, colleagues talked Kathy through how they had designed them to ensure that everything was off the floor to make it a clearer working space. They also discussed the importance of the new technologies that had been implemented, how they have been utilised to improve patient care, and how changes such as the flooring and monitor levels have made an impact on the noise levels, which is so important for babies at this stage in their development.

The group also shared how the new unit had helped with recruitment and retention, with things like dedicated areas for teams to be together making a big impact on staff wellbeing.

The tour included visiting areas such as the dedicated parent laundry room, which means that parents do not need to go home to do their laundry, and the family lounge which includes a kitchen space where families can make meals and have some time together.

The tour ended with a discussion with staff around what they would like to see more of, how they could be further supported and the benefits of all the support services such as dietitians and speech and language therapists being in the same space.

Kathy said: “I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to show me around the unit. It is obviously a very busy unit, but there is still that calm atmosphere that prevails, and I think that is so important in a unit like this that is caring for such tiny babies.

“It has been great to speak to staff and hear their different accounts of how the unit works and the benefits for both staff and patients. It is clear that the unit has been really well thought out to consider everything that may be needed for the families that need to use it.”