The unit achieved outstanding results across four measures of care in the National Neonatal Audit Programme (NNAP).

Dr Vennila Ponnusamy, consultant neonatologist and neonatal specialty lead, said: ‘We are very pleased to have received an outstanding status on four of the NNAP measures, building on the two outstanding statuses last year.

‘This shows the excellent standards we aspire to achieve in all areas, and the great quality of care we provide to our babies and families. Thanks to our Little Roo Neonatal Fund for supporting our unit with the state-of-the-art ventilators, which can provide non-invasive ventilation to smaller babies, allowing us to continue the ethos of less invasive ventilation, which has been shown to have long-term health benefits to all babies.

‘We are very proud to be working closely with our maternity colleagues in implementing the perinatal optimisation bundle, which helps us to deliver best perinatal care to our babies and families.'

The NICU was identified as a positive outlier, achieving three or more standard deviations above expected performance, in the following areas: deferred cord clamping; two-year follow-up assessments for preterm babies born under 30 weeks' gestation; non-invasive ventilation; and on-time screening for retinopathy of prematurity.