Neonatal Services

The Leeds Centre for Newborn Care is one of the largest neonatal services in the UK. We provide specialist care to around 1,600 newborn babies each year, many of whom need intensive care or surgery. We care for babies from the whole of the Yorkshire region and beyond.

What we do

baby in the neonatal unit

We look after babies with three sorts of problems:

  • Those born very early or too small
  • Those who have problems in the way that they are made (congenital anomalies)
  • Those who become ill around the time of birth

Leeds has a large multidisciplinary team that are available for every baby who needs specialised care.

This includes:

  • Neonatal intensive care
  • Neonatal surgery
  • Neonatal cardiology
  • The Children’s Liver team
  • Children’s renal team
  • Paediatric neurology and neurosurgery specialists

We are supported by specialist pharmacists, physiotherapists, dieticians, speech therapists and occupational therapists to ensure that babies receive the best available care.

Locations

Newborn Care in Leeds is currently provided in two hospitals. At our Leeds Children’s Hospital LGI site, we care for babies who require intensive care, surgery or other specialist care. We work closely with the fetal medicine and maternity service. This means that babies with complex problems can be diagnosed, monitored in the womb and delivered in a centre with expertise available if urgent treatment is required after birth.

At our Leeds Children’s Hospital St James’ University Hospital site we provide high dependency and special care for babies. We care for premature babies and those babies that have required a higher level of care and are now recovering and getting ready to go home.

Both at LGI and St James’ sites we also have a Transitional Care ward. Here, mothers and babies are cared for together. This may be on the way home after a stay on the neonatal unit or when a baby needs a higher level of care that routine postnatal care. For example, if a baby is born well but after 33 weeks’ gestation and before 37 weeks. The ward is staffed by neonatal nurses and midwives, that care for mothers.

Babies admitted to the Leeds Centre for Newborn Care may move between the two hospitals. Babies who have been cared for at Leeds Children’s Hospital LGI site will move either to St James’ or to a unit closer to home once they no longer require intensive care or specialty input. Babies at the St. James’ site may sometimes move across to the LGI site. Transfers between the hospitals are carried out by Embrace, the specialist Children’s and Infant Transport Team.

The medical and nursing teams work at both units. We have an award winning outreach nursing team, who support families in the weeks and months after discharge home. Babies are also seen in out-patients after they go home, if they need it.

Short term parental accommodation is available on both units and with additional accommodation available across Leeds Children’s Hospital. Parents of babies on the units are eligible to apply for accommodation, but priority will be given to parents from outside Leeds and to those whose babies are very poorly.

Family Integrated Care

Newborn Care in Leeds follows a Family Integrated Care philosophy. This means that we support parents and carers to be as involved in their baby’s care as they want to be. Babies have better outcomes if their parents/carers are able to be very much part of their care. Staff support, teach and help parents to learn how to look after their poorly or premature baby. Together, parents can become integral to their baby’s care. Read more about this on our Family Integrated Care page.

Meet the team

The multidisciplinary team is made up of variety of staff including nurses, junior doctors, clinical support workers, housekeepers, ward clerks, nursery nurses, specialist allied health professionals, pharmacists and consultants.

Neonatal Consultants 

Dr Hannah Shore – Lead Clinician
Dr Lisa Barker – Lead for Epidemiology and Education  
Dr Sharon English – Lead for Palliative Care and Fetal Medicine
Dr Chris Forster – Lead for Nutrition and Workforce  
Dr Cath Harrison – Neonatal Transport Lead
Dr Kathryn Johnson – Lead for Research and Epidemiology
Dr Liz McKechnie – Lead for Family Integrated Care, Lead for Infection Prevention and Control
Dr Lawrence Miall – Special interest in neonatal cardiology, Governance Lead
Dr Nikki Mullins – Lead for Outpatient Follow-up and Undergraduate Teaching
Dr Amelia Shaw – Lead for Post-Natal Ward and Fetal Medicine
Dr Rachel Toone – Lead for Simulation and Screening 
Dr Jo Wright – Lead for Developmental Care


Lead Nurses

Matron for Neonatal Services – Debra Smith
LGI Unit Lead Nurse – Laura Ealham
St James’s University Hospital Unit Lead Nurse – Caroline Britton
Surgical Lead Nurse – Emily Broadwell 
Transitional Care – Sam Plets
Outreach Team Lead – Debbie Woodward

Leeds Centre for Newborn Care actively participates in national and international research trials and has representatives on many national professional organisations.

We work closely with the following organisations:

The following charities support the purchase of vital equipment for the neonatal service:

Listen to our podcast ‘Unexpected Beginnings – The Neonatal Unit’

Hosted by veteran neonatal parents, Caroline Verdon and Kerry Bickerdike, this podcast will hold your hand through every step of the neonatal journey whether your baby is premature or full term, well or needing surgery.

Having a baby on a neonatal ward is a traumatic experience no matter how well your baby is doing. The wires, the bleeps, the medical terminology can all add up to create an environment that can feel really isolating and worlds away from what you had expected when you first saw your baby on an ultrasound.

Through listening to other parents experiences and speaking to doctors, surgeons, mental health workers and everyone in-between, this podcast aims to make you feel less alone and more supported, signposting you to help and information along the way.

This podcast has been recorded with the help and support of Leeds Children’s Hospital, Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust and funded by Leeds Hospital Charity.

Contact us

Leeds General Infirmary Neonatal Unit

The neonatal unit at our Leeds General Infirmary site is on Ward L43, C floor, Clarendon Wing, opposite the canteen.

If you need to contact the LGI site please find phone numbers below:

Information:

Ward Reception: 0113 3927443

If you have a baby on the unit you can contact the team where your baby is being cared for:

St James’s Hospital Neonatal Unit

The Neonatal Unit at our St James’s Hospital site is on Ward J01, Level 5, Gledhow Wing.

If you need to contact the St James’ site please find phone number below:

Information:

Ward Reception – 0113 2069101

Transitional Care 

Leeds General Infirmary site. Ward L36, B floor, Clarendon Wing. 0113 39 22017

St James’ University Hospital site. Access through J04, Level 5, Gledhow Wing. 0113 206 5701

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