The Leicester Neonatal Service

The Leicester Neonatal Service is a dynamic and modern neonatal service providing the full range of care for babies in the East Midlands.

The unit serves a large population with around 12,000 deliveries per year.

We provide care for babies of all gestations, including those requiring the most specialised forms of neonatal intensive care. We are a regional cooling centre, providing specialist therapy for babies that have suffered from a lack of oxygen around the time of birth.

We work with a team of specialist neonatal surgeons and offer surgery for a range of serious conditions. We have close working links with our colleagues at the East Midlands Congenital Heart Centre and jointly treat a number of children with complex heart problems.

Leicester has the UK's largest ECMO centre providing this unique form of life support to our sickest patients.

The Neonatal Service is currently split across 2 sites. We have 42 cots with plans for expansion of our unit. This is an exciting time for our service with the recent announcements for funding to build a new maternity hospital and state of the art single site neonatal service in Leicester.

At present, the Leicester Royal Infirmary houses our main intensive care, with facilities for 10 intensive care cots, 8 High Dependency Cots and 12 Special Care cots.

The Leicester General has a smaller unit with 12 Special Care cots. Many of our babies spend some time in both units. You can find accessibility information here.

Leicester is the Lead Neonatal Intensive Care for the region, and we work closely with other hospitals in our neonatal network. We work closely with the regional CenTre Neonatal Transport Service which is based at the Leicester Royal Infirmary. Further information about our network can be found at http://www.emnodn.nhs.uk.

You can find accessibility information for Neonatal Overnight Stay here.

You can find accessibility information for Neonatal unit - Special Baby Care Unit here. 

You can find accessibility information for Neonatal Unit - Special Care Baby Unit - ITU/HDU here.