Tendai Nzirawa
Queens University Hospital, UK
Title: Early discharge from the neonatal unit, who does it actually benefit?
Biography
Biography: Tendai Nzirawa
Abstract
Over the last 10 years, there has been a drive to move health services from hospital to community. Part of this has been driven forward, by hospitals participating in the UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative. The role of the community neonatal nurse is to ensure that there would be no brakes, therefore this initiative will continue being driven forward right until the parents and infant have settled in their home environment. The data from our service has identified an increase of infants being discharged early, mostly before their expected date of delivery, with home oxygen and at times with nasogastric feeding tube. Since 2009, at least 18 infants are discharged per year from our neonatal unit, and at least five infants are discharged per year with nasogastric tube feeding. This indicates an estimated average of £600 per day being saved per cot space. The argument would be that, not only do we save financial and increase the cot availability, but this would reduce the parental anxiety and fears by discharging these complex infants to not only bond with their families but increase their developmental milestones. Two recent surveys done within our service have shown that parents value the support they receive at home from our service, and felt there was no increased stress caring for their baby on home oxygen.