'History repeating itself' - concern over changes to urgent baby care in Sunderland

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health recommended in 2015 that Sunderland’s intensive neonatal care unit should no longer admit babies born at under 26 weeks of the pregnancy. It is only now that Sunderland and South Tyneside NHS Trust has been able to implement the changes.

However, Sunderland’s neonatal until will accept premature children born at over the 26-week stage from across the North East and potentially as far away as Carlisle. The shake-up in extreme preterm care is expected on August 1 this year.

According to health bosses, the shake-up is required because Sunderland’s premature ward, the smallest in the country, is not busy enough to create the best outcomes for babies under 26 weeks.

Children born under 26 weeks in Sunderland or South Tyneside will be cared for at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle or Middlesbrough’s James Cook Hospital.

Dr Sundeep Harigopal, the clinical lead of the regional neonatal care network, said the changes would help Sunderland Royal become a “centre for excellence” and would only impact around five families a year.

While councillors from across the region were in favour of the proposals, as it is expected to improve the health of the extremely premature children across the region, some lamented the loss of the service for the most premature babies.

South Tyneside councillor Geraldine Kilgour: “I think none of us would question that the most important thing is the safety of the babies, however, this is history repeating itself with a different service.

“We suffered a significant loss at South Tyneside with regards to the stroke unit and the removal of [consultant led] maternity from South Tyneside to Sunderland. We were promised at that point that the intensive care and neonatal would remain in Sunderland and to be honest, for those of us involved in this for a long time, we were sceptical about that.”

Councillor Kilgour went on to criticise government funding to the NHS, as the service becomes increasingly reliant on voluntary groups, claiming it was “criminal from a central government perspective”.