Seriously ill babies will reach specialists more quickly

The Embrace service will be available round the clock, every day of the year and is the first of its kind in the UK.

It uses a team of specially-trained doctors and nurses, call handlers and ambulance crews to carry out routine and emergency transfers from district hospitals across Yorkshire to specialist units which have the highest levels of expertise to deal with complex life-threatening conditions.

Three years of planning have gone into setting up the service for routine and emergency transfers of patients. It replaces existing services where hospital staff often travelled in ambulances to accompany sick patients.

Very ill children are already being carried from district hospitals for hi-tech care at regional centres using the service, which from April will also take on the transfer of the sickest newborn babies.

The service's call centre in Barnsley has the latest call conferencing technology, enabling medical teams from hospitals to access specialist knowledge, advice and the latest information about the location of available intensive care beds and neonatal cots by telephoning one number.

The centre also allows clinicians to discuss cases more easily and decide on the best way to treat each patient.

It is expected the location of a dedicated ambulance and team on one site will also reduce the transfer times of patients, enabling them to receive specialist care more quickly.

Claire Harness, lead nurse for Embrace, said: "This is a very exciting development. After three years of planning and development, seeing all the hard work come together is wonderful."

The service is a collaborative venture hosted by Sheffield Children's Hospital with staff from Sheffield and Leeds teaching hospitals.

Project manager Tracy Jackson said: "With these established NHS trusts pooling expertise and resources in a spirit of co-operation we have been able to introduce the new service."

Two years ago, a National Audit Office report found only half of neonatal networks had specialist transport available round the clock and few had separate staffing arrangements, meaning staff had to leave units to accompany babies while they were transferred. It found three-quarters of units faced delays moving babies.