Transfers and Repatriation

As Scotland’s biggest and busiest neonatal unit, we regularly transfer babies into our unit from other areas of the country for specialist care and support.

Subsequently, we always aim to transfer babies back to their local neonatal unit to be closer to home and to allow the discharge planning process to continue once they are ready to do so. We will keep you informed of the process for this during your baby’s stay on the neonatal unit.

We undertake weekly repatriation calls with some of the other neonatal units in the West of Scotland which allows us to keep your local team up to date with your baby’s progress while they are with us in RHC.

Occasionally, all of the neonatal cots in our neonatal unit are occupied with current patients and can limit our ability to accept new admissions requiring specialist level care. In some circumstances, if your baby does not require the specialist level neonatal care provided at RHC, despite being booked to deliver at QEUH, you and/or your baby may need to be transferred to the closest maternity unit with available neonatal cots, most appropriate to your baby’s anticipated care needs. This is to ensure we can provide the correct levels of care to all babies across the country needing neonatal care. We aim to move baby’s closer to home again as soon as possible.