News / Health
New helicoptor incubators to help critically ill babies in Bristol
Critically ill babies will be able to have the specialist services they need in quicker time due to three new bespoke helicopter incubators.
Developed and funded by the Children’s Air Ambulance charity (TCAA), the incubators will be used by neonatal transport teams.
Previously, helicopters could not be used to transfer smaller infants who need higher levels of support. The new incubator will maintain environmental conditions suitable for a newborn baby, to ensure outstanding care is provided for babies in the air.
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TCAA has provided the incubators to specialist NHS transport teams across England free of charge, including Bristol’s Neonatal Emergency Stabilisation Team (NEST).
NEST is based at the neonatal intensive care unit at St Michael’s Hospital and responds to emergency calls involving sick newborn babies.
Once they stabilise the babies, they transport them promptly and safely between neonatal units and hospitals based across the South West.
Patrick Turton, lead nurse for NEST, said: “This incubator means we will be able to get the smaller, more fragile babies to the specialist services they need more quickly, reducing the anxiety and worry of the parents, and ultimately reducing the time taken for the infants to get the specialist support they need.
“We will also be able to get babies and families back together after they’ve had this specialist input, avoiding long road journeys, and reducing the time spent outside of hospital, so we’re really looking forward to continuing to work closely with TCAA to be able to provide this level of transport to support more babies and their families.”
Main photo: Children’s Air Ambulance
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