Hospital chiefs to invest £2m in Watford General's neonatal Intensive Care Unit

HOSPITAL chiefs are set to invest £2million in the neonatal intensive care unit at Watford General – even though they expect it to be replaced before 2030.

The unit provides crucial care for premature and sick infants who require high dependency care or short term intensive care.

And the investment will be used to replace the air handling unit, as well as upgrading the medical gases, power supply and nurse call system.

Lighting, hand wash basins, the nurse base and fire doors will be upgraded – and there will be some redecoration.

Members of the West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals Trust board agreed to invest at their meeting on June 1.

They met just days after hospital chiefs were told their £1.27bn plans to redevelop Watford General would be fully funded by the government – with work expected to be complete by 2030.

But despite the government announcement they agreed that the ‘essential infrastructure improvements’ to the unit were needed in advance of the redevelopment of the hospital.

“Concerns regarding the existing environment have been raised by the CQC and through peer review, in addition to being voiced by Trust staff,” says the report to the board.

“These concerns cannot wait several years for the delivery of the Acute Redevelopment Programme before they are addressed.”

According to the report considered by the board the current ventilation system is ‘compromised’.

It does not, it says, provide variable temperature control or dedicated ventilation to different parts of the unit.

At times, it says, oil heaters have been used to heat the nurseries during cold weather spells – but this is no longer allowed due to safety concerns.

And, says the report, it is ‘almost impossible to keep the nurseries at an appropriate temperature’.

The current air handling unit is reported to be in excess of 30 years old – 10 years beyond its ‘design life’.

It is – according to the report – increasingly difficult to maintain and ‘will not remain serviceable until the anticipated move of the neonatal unit into the new hospital’.

In the ITU area the system provides 2.3 air changes an hour – compared to the minimum requirement of 10.

And this, says therefore, ‘is placing some of our most clinically vulnerable patients at an increased risk’.

According to the report to the board, enabling works could begin this month, a contractor on site by the end of next month (July) – and the work complete in November.

In order for the improvements to be made the services will have to be temporarily moved to other areas of the hospital.

The report accepts that in some areas during the work ventilation, water supply and power supply may be ‘worse than current facility’.

Commenting on the works, West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals Trust director of environment David Ambrose said: “Our current neonatal ventilation unit is over 30 years’ old and we cannot wait any longer to replace it.

“Installing a new unit before redevelopment gets under way allows us to plan and execute the necessary clinical moves in a controlled and safe manner for the benefit of patients and staff, and minimises disruption.”