Sick babies' transport scheme

There will be a special transport team for each journey

A new transport service for sick babies across East Anglia is officially launched on Tuesday.

The Acute Neonatal Transport Service will carry babies needing medical care between all hospitals in the region.

Occasionally the service will take babies to and from specialist units outside the region.

Until now the service, based at Addenbrooke's Hospital, only transported babies to and from Cambridge.

Service development manager for neonatal transport, Jacquie Kemp, said the more wide-ranging service would mean better co-ordination for the entire region.

Experienced specialists

"It also means that we have a special transport team for each journey consisting of a driver, doctor and nurse," she said.

"All doctors and nurses on the scheme are experienced specialists, and because they are dedicated to this service, we do not have to call on staff from the ward."

The new scheme currently operates for 12 hours a day from Monday to Friday.

Outside these times babies are transported by baby unit staff.

However there are plans to develop the scheme to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.