Overview

The Neonatal Unit is part of the Paediatric Directorate. The Neonatal Unit provides all levels of newborn medical care and intensive care to babies from South Tyneside and Sunderland and across the Northern region. It is also home to an Intensive and High Dependency Care Unit.

Women may be referred during pregnancy, when very early birth is anticipated, or babies transferred to Sunderland for specialist care after delivery in their local hospital. We welcome pre-admission visits from parents when admission is anticipated.

About one baby in ten needs additional medical care in the newborn period, with about one in a 100 requiring intensive care.  Wherever possible, we aim to keep mothers and babies together.The Neonatal Unit is able to care for up to 16 babies at a time between 9 special care cots and 7 intensive/high dependency care cots. We also have 2 parent and baby rooms for “rooming in” before going home. “Rooming in” is when you stay with your baby for a few days to get more confident caring for your baby in preparation for leaving the unit.

The unit’s philosophy of care is to provide the highest standard of neonatal care in a family orientated environment. Each and every baby is treated as an individual with unique needs, and we include the emotional and social needs of all babies into our care to support their development and recovery.

View our clinical guidelines here

Neonatal Formulary

  • All drug doses and indications have been written primarily for use within the NICU and take into account the best available evidence at the time of their creation and review, as well as current recommended best practices.
  • Drug doses and indications are reviewed regularly and altered as required. An up to date summary of revisions and consultants involved is available on the PDF format (available on request). 
  • All care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of these drug doses and indications.
  • No responsibility or liability is accepted for the use or misuse of these drug doses and indications outside Newborn Intensive Care Unit.
  • The reader should take all due care to ensure that the information contained within the following pages is accurate.

 Please e-mail: i.ahmed@nhs.net or rachel.guy6@nhs.net for any queries or suggestions.

Infections - Neonatal

Sedation & Paralysis - Neonatal

Cardiac Drugs - Neonatal

Anticonvulsants - Neonatal

Respiratory Drugs - Neonatal

Diuretics - Neonatal

GORD - Neonatal

Electrolyte Imbalances - Neonatal

Metabolic - Neonatal

Supplements - Neonatal

Blood products - Neonatal

Immune System - Neonatal

Intubation Drugs - Neonatal

Visiting Policy

Parents are our partners in caring for their babies. There are no restrictions on visiting and parents are welcomed and encouraged to be with their baby at any time – day or night. To avoid overcrowding, which can increase infection risk to the babies, we aim to have only two visitors at each cot side.

If parents are unable to visit through sickness or need to be at home for other reasons, we have a video-conferencing facility (clinic.co) and video/photo sharing facility (VCreate) which allows parents and families to see babies and speak to staff members. Parents can speak to the nurse looking after their baby if they would like to use this facility.

Nursing team

The nursing team, led on each shift by nurse in charge, are responsible for planning and co-ordinating nursing care and are happy to speak to any parent.

The senior nurses are known as sister or charge nurse and wear navy uniforms. Staff nurses wear light blue uniform. All babies will have a nurse allocated to their care on each shift.

As a neonatal unit within a teaching hospital we will often have student nurses working under the supervision of a registered nurse. Babies needing less technical care may be allocated to the care of a nursery nurse (red uniform) who will work in partnership with colleagues in the nursing team.

Health Care Assistants in beige uniform help nursing staff with equipment preparation and cleaning.

During the day a ward clerk is on duty, and may be the first person you meet as you come into the unit. They will often open the door buzzer and if no ward clerk is on duty the door buzzer will be answered by the clinical staff.

Although we will try our best to keep delays to a minimum at times all staff may be busy with a baby.  We hope that you do not have to wait too long and will understand that the babies always have to be our first priority.
 

Who are we

Clinical Lead

Dr Majd Abu Harb 
Consultant Neonatologist
[Ext 42003 Bleep 51116]

Consultants

Dr Imran Ahmed
[Ext 42729 Bleep 55015]

Dr Ruppa Geethanath
[Ext 47033 Bleep 51517]

Dr Lorna Gillespie (Clinical Director for Paediatrics)    
[Ext 47042 Bleep 51926]  
        
Dr Chike Onwuneme
[Ext 42750 Bleep 51113]

Emily Cameron
Unit Manager
[Tel 0191 5656256 Ext 41788]
 

Directorate Manager

Derek Curry

[Derek.Curry@nhs.net]

Divisional Director

Claire McManus

Matron 

Richard Allsop

Medical Secretaries 

Angela Elliott Ext 41269
[angela.elliott9@nhs.net]

Jill Lowthian Ext 40032
[Jilllowthian@nhs.net]

Where we are based

The neonatal unit is located on:

D Floor
Chester Wing
Sunderland Royal Hospital
Kayll Road
SR4 7TP

The unit is most easily reached from Chester Road, through the Maternity Block entrance on the right of Chester Road Outpatients Entrance 5.  

How you can contact us

Direct Line 0191 569 9153

Ext 49153

Useful links

The Northern Neonatal Network has also developed a very handy app, which includes information for families of premature and sick babies, with key information our hospital and neonatal unit.

 

The BLISS website also have lots of great online resources including video tour of a unit, different levels of care and how to be involved
 

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