Brand new Fetal Medicine Unit opens at Queen’s Medical Centre
A brand-new £1.4million Fetal Medicine Unit has opened its doors to women and birthing people at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham.
The Fetal Medicine service is a highly specialist part of maternity care which provides consultant and midwife clinics and offers treatments to support families with complications affecting an unborn baby, such as fetal anaemia.
The NUH Fetal Medicine team also receive referrals from other hospitals across the East Midlands due to the specialist skill of the service.
The new unit includes three scanning rooms with ultrasound capability, a treatment room, four consultation rooms, and a dedicated waiting room for families coming for a Fetal Medicine appointment. It also includes a staff kitchen and offices.
A dedicated Fetal Medicine Unit has been several years in the planning as the service has outgrown the current small space it occupies in the Antenatal clinic.
In addition, the new unit allows Fetal Medicine colleagues to work on one site in the same space providing a more easily coordinated, efficient and integrated service.
Sharon Wallis, Director of Midwifery at NUH, said: “The Fetal Medicine department has developed over many years to become the service it is today which makes a difference to the lives of so many families.
“Until now, the Fetal Medicine team has worked out of the antenatal clinics at the QMC and City hospitals in cramped spaces which are no longer suitable for the needs of the service and the women and families in our care. The team have continued to provide excellent care in less-than-ideal environments.
“This location meant that there was a lack of privacy for families at some of the most difficult moments of their lives, and our staff were unable to deliver and develop the service to its full potential.
“We are therefore pleased to be able to support our highly-skilled Fetal Medicine colleagues by providing them with a working environment they deserve, and a much better experience for our families.”
One of the women who has received treatment from the Fetal Medicine team is Liberty Richards, a teacher who contracted a virus whilst pregnant which led to her unborn baby developing severe anaemia and requiring a blood transfusion in the womb.
The 24-year-old from Bingham explained why a dedicated space for the Fetal Medicine team is so important for families, rather than the former space based within the Antenatal clinic.
She said: “When I was walking through the antenatal clinic I did think ‘I wonder if all these women who are there for their scans and vaccines know where people are going when we walk through, and what we are going through’.
“I think the new unit will make it easier for women and families who are not going through the nicest time, and having it separate also means that when you are in the waiting room there is some comfort in knowing we are not the only people on the planet going through this.”
More information about the Fetal Medicine department is available on the NUH website: https://www.nuh.nhs.uk/fetal-medicine