Vicky Gray from Canning Town, East London met Lyn Brown MP at Bliss, the special care baby charity’s parliamentary event on Wednesday 9 November, where we launched our SOS campaign (Save our special care babies, Save our specialist nurses) and report on frontline cuts to nurses caring for babies born too soon, too small and too sick in England.

The event, hosted by Chris Heaton-Harris MP for Daventry, comes after Bliss found that one in every three units caring for premature and sick babies in England are making cuts to their nursing workforce through redundancies, freezing vacancies or downgrading nurses. Bliss released a report last year that found that 1,150 extra neonatal nurses were needed to provide care for premature and sick babies. Since then, almost 140 frontline nursing posts have been cut, putting vulnerable babies at risk. Bliss wants all babies to receive the highest level of care delivered by the right number of specialist nursing staff as there is strong evidence to show that increasing the ratio of specialist nurses to babies in intensive care heightens their chance of survival and improves their long term health outcomes.

Vicky Gray talked to Lyn Brown MP about her experience of having a baby in neonatal care. Vicky’s son Kieron was born at 24 weeks, weighing 740g at Newham General Hospital. He was then transferred to Royal London NICU as Newham didn’t have the facilities required for babies born less than 28 weeks. Vicki was left at Newham while Kieron was transferred to Royal London. He spent seven weeks there and then was transferred back to Newham.

Vicky said about the day: “Once I had read the contents of the Bliss SOS report I knew I had to do all I could to make the Government aware that they are putting babies lives at risk due to cuts in neonatal services.  The report shows increasing the number of specialist nurses on a neonatal unit reduces infant mortality by around 48%. I was really pleased with the actions Lyn Brown MP has agreed to take in order to help our campaign.  I just hope that the Health Secretary will listen and take action to help these most vulnerable patients.” 

Lyn Brown MP commented: “One in nine babies in West Ham, are admitted to specialist hospital care each year. I want to make sure these babies get the very best care. Sadly the report by Bliss  shows that our most vulnerable babies are not always getting the care they need. I am supporting the SOS campaign to make sure all babies born premature and sick get the care they need to give them the best possible start in life.”

Bliss Campaigns and Policy Manager Helen Kirrane said, “We are really grateful to Lyn Brown MP and Vicky for supporting the launch of our SOS report. Bliss is urging the Government and individual hospital trusts to stop making short sighted cuts to frontline nurses. We also want the Health Secretary to commit to improving outcomes for these vulnerable babies making this a priority issue in the guidance he gives to the NHS.”

To become a Bliss local campaigner please get in touch with Sara Hall, sarah@bliss.org.uk or for more information visit www.bliss.org.uk

Write to Lyn Brown MP, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA, email brownl@parliament.uk or call 020 7219 6999.