Dr Sunita Seal from Bradford Royal Infirmary’s neonatal intensive care unit talks retirement after helping to save babies' lives

She says: “Arnab and I met while training at the Calcutta Medical College and came to England to work after initial training in India, so it’s quite fitting that we are both retiring at the same time.”

The pair originally came to this country in 1992 to continue their training and achieve membership of the Royal College of Paediatrics. Dr Seal worked in Exeter, Oxford and Great Ormond Street before coming up to St James’ Hospital in Leeds for her first registrar job.

“Life was going well and I was enjoying medicine when we went away for a weekend with five friends from medical school and came up with the idea to open a hospital, on the outskirts of Calcutta, for people who couldn’t afford good healthcare.

“Plans very soon became a reality and we left Leeds and returned to India to oversee the hospital build which we managed between us – it was the first of its kind in India. We took loans, using personal guarantees, and built the hospital from scratch after we’d purchased the land. The multi-speciality, Westbank Hospital opened in 1998, fulfilling our hopes and aspirations.”

The hospital achieved a few firsts, including the first newborn transport service for the region, consultant-delivered care and the launch of the first biomedical training course in India.

However, they returned to Leeds in 2001 so that Dr Seal could finish her registrar’s training.

"My daughter was born here and it felt like home,” she says. “In fact, I remember when we told our daughter in Calcutta that we were going (back) to Leeds, her comment was: ‘So we are going home?’ She was just about five at that time.”

Dr Seal started work as a locum doctor in neonates at St James’ until a training number came up which meant she could complete her training and work at other regional NICUs. “Bradford was my last rotation and that’s how I ended up at the Trust,” she says. “I was told to try it out as they’d have a job at the end. I did and I have loved working here ever since.”

Dr Seal was appointed a substantive consultant in 2003. “I’ve stayed this long because it is such a lovely place to work,” she adds. “The work is brilliant – because there is so much pathology, so it is food for the soul. The variety of work you don’t get anywhere else and that’s why Bradford is so popular with trainees as they see cases they don’t see anywhere and which are especially unique in neonates and paediatrics.

“My colleagues and families are the best – the team here is absolutely amazing and that’s why once you come to Bradford, you are here forever.”

Memorable highlights include her years as clinical lead from 2009 to 2020, the redevelopment of the unit into modern, fit-for-purpose facilities for families and colleagues in 2015, and achieving Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) accreditation from UNICEF in 2018 - the first unit in the UK to do so.

In spite of the coronavirus pandemic, which inevitably affected the service, it has just been reaccredited “with ‘flying colours’,” says Dr Seal, “which is an incredible achievement and so I leave on a high”.

Speaking a few days before her final shift, Dr Seal says: “It is obviously extremely rewarding. We look after different kinds of babies in the neonatal intensive care unit. The vast majority are premature babies, who are as premature as 24 and even 23 weeks gestation, so that's about 16 to 17 weeks preterm, born before the due date. And that is the bulk of our work because when babies are born that early, they stay on the unit for not only weeks but sometimes months. Those babies, the ones who have been there for a very long time, clearly all of them are memorable because we get to know the babies, we get to know the families because they are there most of the time.”

The staff also forge close links with the families of babies who unfortunately die. “To a certain extent it is part of the job but it is still difficult every time,” says Dr Seal. “We do actually keep in touch with those families as well, and often what will happen is when those families have another baby, and where the outcome has been different, (they) will let us know, they will bring their new baby for us to have a look at and they keep in touch with us.

"There are a few particular families that I remember very well who have kept in touch with us over the years and have brought their child, when the child is older, to come and see the unit and explain to them how they had a little one before them who sadly didn't make it and did not go home from the baby unit.”

Arnab, meanwhile, has also served in roles such as chairperson of the European Academy of Childhood Disability in addition to his job at the Leeds Community Healthcare Trust.

In their retirement, the couple plan to spend more time with their only daughter, Trina, who lives in London.

Dr Seal plans to retain her medical registration for up to five years as she has various teaching and training roles with the Newborns Vietnam charity with fellow BRI retiree, Dr Chris Day.

Chief Medical Officer at Bradford Teaching Hospitals, Dr Ray Smith, says her “leadership and support has enabled the NICU to thrive and develop into the fantastic unit we have today”.