Neonatology

Neonatal services at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is a Welsh regional unit located at the University Hospital of Wales (UHW).  The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is a busy ward with a maximum capacity of 36 neonatal cots.  The unit provides high level care for neonates who need surgery, those referred from the fetal medicine service and neonatal intensive care for the local population of Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan.

Following the amalgamation of the Llandough and UHW Obstetric services in the summer of 2005, there are around 4500 births each year at UHW.  Approximately 620 babies are admitted to the NICU each year, most of the babies that require admission are born in UHW.  A small percentage of admissions are born in other hospitals, with most of these babies born in other Welsh hospitals and a tiny minority coming from England.

There are many reasons why babies need to come to the NICU, but most babies are either born prematurely or are born at term but then become unwell.  We routinely look after babies born as early as only 24 weeks gestation, and occasionally 23 weeks gestation.  During their stay on the unit many babies require input from our specialist paediatric colleagues, most frequently from the Paediatric Surgeons.  Most out born babies that are admitted are specialist referrals for Paediatric Surgery, Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) Surgery, Neurosurgery or Ophthalmology.

 

 

 

 

Location