Bradford Hospitals

Like many health charities across the country, Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was overwhelmed by the generosity of supporters during the pandemic. Emergency fundraising helped to alleviate the extraordinary demands being placed on its incredible staff team and played a key role in lifting spirits across the hospital. Only recently, has the Trust been able to turn its attention once again to capital projects that were cut short by Covid, including significant investment in its Neonatal Intensive Care Unit which serves families right across the Yorkshire and Humber area.

Creating a home-from-home environment for Neonatal Care

The existing Unit lacks adequate accommodation and its communal facilities are too small for the number of parents, grandparents and siblings related to the 500 sick and premature babies staff care for every year. Bradford Hospital also works in a network with three other hospitals in Yorkshire that have NICU provision for the sickest babies – Leeds, Sheffield and Hull. Whilst every effort is made to send a baby to their local hospital, sometimes, there simply aren’t enough NICU beds in the area, which means a baby living in Wakefield for example, might have to be born in Bradford and remain in the hospital’s NICU. For parents and siblings, this poses significant emotional and logistical challenges. Not only is it heart-wrenching to have to leave your poorly baby in another city, but the challenges of caring for siblings whilst needing to bond with a new born puts immeasurable pressure on parents at what is often already the most stressful of times.

The parent and family accommodation at the new Unit will relieve some of these anxieties, enabling families to stay together in the vital early days and weeks.‘We are really pleased to be working with Bradford Hospitals Charity in the fundraising feasibility stage of this much-needed facility,’ says Amy Stevens. ‘As someone who lives and works in this part of Yorkshire, I know how highly regarded the Neonatal team at Bradford are. The new Unit will make it possible for them to ensure that care for sick and premature babies in the region, is the very best it can be.'

If your organisation is looking to take the next steps with a major capital project, why not get in touch with one of our directors and ask for an exploratory conversation about your fundraising needs or alternatively, you can contact us here