Four bits of news

The Royal Surrey Maternity Unit undertook UNICEF’s rigorous assessment in the spring and was awarded Gold in June. The Department has also maintained its Baby Friendly accreditation for twenty years and is one of only a few organisations in the county to be awarded the UNICEF’s Baby Friendly Gold Award.

According to latest statistics the Royal Surrey has the lowest death rate for cardiac arrest than any other hospital.

The latest national figures show that the Royal Surrey has 21% less deaths than would be expected given its case mix and is in the top 5 hospitals in the country.

Ever since the Maternity Department opened at the Royal Surrey in 1991there has been only one Obstetric Theatre and the Anaesthetic Room has been used as a back-up theatre for emergency caesarean sections when the existing theatre was in use. This has resulted in cramped working conditions for staff and potential safety issues for patients, neither of which is desirable for a unit that was graded as 'Outstanding' following last year's CQC inspection. All of this is about to change with the building of a new second Obstetric Theatre adjacent to the existing one, which will necessitate moving the existing Special Care Baby Unit to a new location. This will provide the opportunity to build a brand new unit which will offer more family-focused care by allowing new mum's to sleep alongside their poorly babies, even when those babies are requiring high dependency care. This will bring a degree of comfort and reassurance to parents at a very difficult time for them and is a new model of care which is not offered at any other Trust in the locality.