The assessment was carried out virtually with New Cross neonatal unit on 11th July 2023 by Bliss Baby Charter Programme Officer Stella Rranxi, and volunteer assessors, Lynne Wainwright and Louise Bryant. The Baby Charter lead for the unit was Kerry Harnett.
The multidisciplinary team at New Cross Hospital passionately strive to promote and ensure parents’ involvement in their babies care. A real culture of trailing innovative ideas and learning and evolving practice with genuine involvement from parents was evident.
The unit is striving to ensure parents’ voices are heard and help drive service improvement. Feedback from parents on the day was extremely positive, in particular with regards to ongoing communication and the support they received from staff.
Stella Rranxi, Bliss Baby Charter Programme Officer, said: “We are delighted to accredit New Cross Hospital Neonatal Unit with its Baby Charter Gold Award. The passion, care, and commitment of staff shone through on assessment day. The team strive to involve families both in their baby’s care and in helping to improve services on the unit overall.
“Strong multidisciplinary team working, particularly involving allied health professionals and the unit’s psychologist as key members of the team was evident. They work hard to create a welcoming and comfortable environment for families, including siblings, and to ensure families can be on the unit as much as they are able to, by assisting with free parking and free hot meals.”
Kerry Harnett, Senior Sister on Neonatal, became lead for Bliss Baby Carter and Family Integrated Care in May 2022. She said: “I’m extremely proud to receive this award on behalf of the team, the babies and their families.
“It’s recognition for the unit, for the work we do, day-in, day-out, and for families it’s reassurance that we listen to them and make changes for the better.
“The award recognises the whole multi-disciplinary team (MDT) including Nurses, Doctors, Psychologists, Physios and Speech and Language Therapists, as we all work towards the same aim because we can’t do it in isolation.”
The unit has presented gold pens to all staff, while Bliss – in partnership with Sainsbury’s – have donated baby clothes to every baby on the unit and this will continue.
Parents and babies joined in the celebrations. Leo Shelton is now 12 weeks old after being born prematurely via a caesarean section at 37 weeks. He had to be resuscitated and cared for in an incubator in the High Dependency Unit. He then required intensive care after suffering jaundice and pneumonia. All this was delivered on the Neonatal Unit at New Cross.
His mum Nicola Chapman, 40, from, Chasetown, a senior healthcare assistant for a Brownhills day centre, said: “When Kerry rang me to tell me about the gold award I told her the team deserves it.”
“We had fantastic care here. Whenever we came away from hospital, we knew Leo was being looked after and we weren’t worried that anything was going to happen to him.
“I had our daughter Lacey here in 2020 and there was never any problem with us all coming in. She was only two at the time but they made her feel comfortable and welcome and the staff were always asking about her.”
