A NEW ambulance service has been set up to transport seriously ill babies in the region.The East Anglian Ambulance Service (EAAT) and the Acute Neonatal Transport Service (ANTS) have teamed up to provide and operate the vehicles which include all the equipment found in a neonatal intensive care unit.
A NEW ambulance service has been set up to transport seriously ill babies in the region.
The East Anglian Ambulance Service (EAAT) and the Acute Neonatal Transport Service (ANTS) have teamed up to provide and operate the vehicles which include all the equipment found in a neonatal intensive care unit.
The ANTS service, which transports newborn babies requiring intensive care between neonatal units in the eastern region, is one year old this month and expects to carry out 750 neonatal emergency and nurse led transfers this year alone.
Jacquie Kemp, service development manager, said: "In designing the vehicles we wanted to produce a mini mobile intensive care unit - a vehicle that could provide everything that a neonatal intensive care unit can.
"The spec was to design a vehicle that would have electricity to support the specifically built transport incubator and equipment and allow the nursing and medical staff full access to gas supplies and equipment so that they can deal with any eventuality during a transfer."
Less road noise and vibrations have been proved to help sick babies on long journeys.
ANTS currently provides a Monday to Friday, 12-hour service, with an emergency transfer team consisting of medical, nursing and ambulance staff and a nurse-led team for non-emergency transfers consisting of nursing and ambulance staff.
The service is based in Cambridge but serves 18 hospitals in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Essex.
It operates four vehicles, two of the new Mercedes supplemented by two older Renaults, which will be replaced by two more new Mercedes later this year.
From September, the emergency service will be extended to provide a 12-hour service seven days a week. And next year, subject to funding, it is intended to provide a 24-hour, seven day service.
Has your child ever needed the help of ANTS? How much better do you think this will be? Write to us at Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or visit the website forum at www.eveningstar.co.uk
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