SOUTHAMPTON: There promises to be a bright future in more ways than one as neonatal facility is officially opened after £1.4m revamp ONE OF THE biggest neonatal care facilities in the country is to be unveiled today at a Southampton hospital after a £1.4m facelift.

The new, brightly-coloured unit at Southampton's Princess Anne Hospital has a total of 36 cots, including special care and an additional eight intensive care cots, and will help treat more than 600 babies born on the south coast.

It will officially be unveiled by Romsey MP Sandra Gidley today at a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Delighted Dr Alyson O'Donnell, a consultant at the unit, is delighted with the transformation and believes the unit now looks like a child-friendly environment.

She said: "We have got 28 beds at the moment with a further eight intensive care beds and two isolation rooms which will be useful during the winter months when we need to separate babies from the main unit.

"The unit is very different now from what it was and it now looks and feels more like a children's unit compared with the old unit.

"There is also a distinctive theme running through the unit and that is the theme of snakes and ladders.

"The architects and builders have done a great job in recreating the children's board game throughout the unit and it is fitting for the patients here.

"The ladders, which are on all the windows, represent the babies' journey upwards and hopefully home and the snakes, which are on the floor, represent the occasion slipback some babies have."

Extra nursing staff have been recruited to join the growing unit, which has an established reputation for offering some of the best clinical outcomes for the sick newborn babies it cares for.

By extending the unit, Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust is helping to ensure that families are able to access the highest standards of neonatal care without having to travel to hospitals outside the area.

Existing cots will also be refurbished and the work will turn the unit into a state-of-the-art facility with a high-quality working environment for staff.

Dr O'Donnell added: "Thanks to this extension every cot has more space around it so that we can move around freely.

"All the hi-tech life-support equipment has come up off the floor and has been mounted at eye level, and child-friendly decor will reflect the fact that we are here to help families.

"We are also being given the opportunity to offer our specialist skills to more babies in the region, and that is very satisfying for all the doctors and nurses who work here."