National Women’s has a Neonatal Transport Service to retrieve babies from outlying hospitals and transport babies to other hospitals.

Retrieval

• Calls should be directed to the specialist on duty / on call.
• If a Registrar or NS-ANP receives a referral, it must be discussed with the specialist (including out of hours). During normal working hours, the specialist is either the Level 3 or the Level 2 specialist, depending on the type of referral.

• Contact the Newborn Clinical Charge Nurse (Mobile 021 874779).
  • She/he is responsible for organising an escort nurse, the equipment, the ambulance and the aeroplane if necessary.

• The specialist decides on the medical escort.
• It will usually be one of the Level 3 or Level 2 registrars or an NS-ANP.
• Out of hours, cover of the unit during the transport should be discussed by the specialist.
• RMOs (and NS-ANPs) will not be left with an unsafe workload when providing cross cover for a transport.

Referrals from North Shore and Waitakere Hospitals

• Babies from these two hospitals have always been assessed by a paediatrician prior to referral.  Most babies are then transported in by staff from those hospitals.
• However, with sick or unstable babies if requested, National Women’s will send out a transport team.
• When requesting a transport team, the Waitemata specialist will contact the Level 3 specialist in normal working hours and, at other times the Level 3 Registrar/NS-ANP (who will then liaise with the Level 3 specialist).
• Referrals for admission to Level 2, brought in by Waitemata staff usually go to the Level 2 Registrar).

Transports

• Transports to other hospitals are usually elective.
• They are arranged by the medical team and the Newborn Clinical Charge Nurse.
• Babies on assisted ventilation or sick unstable babies will need a medical as well as nursing escort.

Urgent Retrievals

• National Women’s has never had a neonatal "flying squad".
• The transport service is essentially to retrieve babies, stabilising them before transport.
• It is the responsibility of the referring service to resuscitate and treat a baby until our transport team arrives.
• However, we will attempt to respond urgently when required. The likely response time should be discussed with the referring practitioner, to give him/her a realistic idea of when our team is likely to arrive.
• Make sure that the referral to the St John’s Ambulance service is flagged Priority One.

Transport Documentation

The following forms are available via the intranet site only: