A system to help doctors find the nearest hospital cot for critically ill newborn babies has been launched.
The government-funded computer program shows which hospitals in England have cots available at any given time. Before this idea, hospital staff have had to call various hospitals to find a cot, which costs time and potentially lives.
Data has suggested that due to shortage of staff and cots, three babies a day are transferred to different hospitals, some travelling hundreds of miles.
In the UK, about one in eight babies requires care in a neonatal unit, and about 17,000 babies a year will need intensive care.
This is mostly due to social trends, such as women giving birth later in life, IVF pregnancies boosting the number of multiple births and more teenage mothers - but it is also a consequence of medical advances that mean more premature babies survive.
In England, NHS neonatal services are divided into 24 regional networks, each having centres of excellence to care for very sick babies.
Hospitals aim to treat 95% of sick newborn babies within their own network. However, if cots aren't free locally, some will have to travel hundreds of miles to find a place. Andy Cole, of the charity Bliss, says they are failing to reach this 95% figure.
"This new system will hopefully be very simple to use and will help," he said.
Although the new system will speed up finding empty cots in hospitals, the disadvantage is that it means that some people will still have to travel long distances to find a cot. In some cases this is because the expert care required, such as rare types of surgery, is only available at one particular centre in the country. But smetimes it is simply because there are no free cots at a local hospital.
"We don't know the exact numbers because they are not recorded, but we know from case studies and examples that it happens on a regular basis," he said.
He said that if the new system did help it should be rolled out to cover the whole of the UK.
Health minister Ivan Lewis, said: "On the occasions when a suitable cot is needed outside of the local network, a call to the National Neonatal Cot Locator will provide immediate up-to-date information about more distant options, making sure that these transfers can happen quickly, are effectively planned and can go as smoothly as possible.
"This will make a real difference to families and professionals seeking to ensure that babies and parents get the best possible care in usually very challenging circumstances."
Professor Neil Marlow, of Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, said sometimes his colleagues had to phone 20 units to find a space for a baby.
"I think this will be really helpful. Also, as a secondary benefit, we will be able, for the first time, to have a look at how often cots are closed throughout the UK."
November 2006
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