Ministry of Health

NZ Government

    
 ©Copyright
 Published: 29/11/2011

Levels of Newborn Care

Care of the newborn has advanced more rapidly than most other fields of medicine in the last 10-20 years. Intensive care has become much more complicated with a widening range between care of the normal and sickest newborns. To overcome resulting difficulties in the organisation of care, services are now becoming organised on a regional basis, hospitals collaboration at different levels. The New Zealand system is based on one originally proposed in the United States and has now become widely accepted in developed countries.

Level O refers to GP units not attached to a general hospital, and without immediate cover by specialist obstetricians of paediatricians.

Level I refers to units attached to general hospitals, with facilities for caesarean section without specialist paediatric services.

Level II refers to units with specialist obstetric and paediatric services, where the majority of complicated obstetric problems and certain neonatal problems are provided for.

Level III refers to regional centres responsible for the most comprehensive and intensive level of obstetric and newborn care. Paediatricians with training in neonatology are in attendance.