Neonatal intensive care provision in the United Kingdom 1992-3

Medical neonatal units in the United Kingdom were surveyed in 1994 to determine for 1992-3 the number of cots, medical and nursing staff, workload, the ability of units to retrieve data and to assess any changes that might have occurred since the NBS reforms. There was an 84% response rate. Many units were unable to provide workload and birthweight specific information. Cot occupancy, and therefore the exposure of individual neonatal nurses to babies requiring intensive care, increased in direct proportion to unit workload. In spite of this a third of all neonatal intensive care, even for babies of <1000 g, is provided by units with ventilator workloads of 50 or fewer babies a year. There was a 25% increase in intensive care level 1 (ICL1) cot provision between 1989 and 1993, but no change in the total number of cots. Consistent maintenance of a common dataset by all units undertaking neonatal intensive care would do much to assist future planning.