Neonatal Unit Parents Suite – Bradford Royal Infirmary

Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Bradford, West Yorkshire

Bowman Riley has designed a suite for the parents of premature newborns as part of the Neonatal Unit at the Bradford Royal Infirmary for Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

This project follows our work on the expansion of the Neonatal Unit in 2012. The Neonatal Unit provides all levels of newborn medical care for up to 30 babies at any one time and is also home to an Intensive and High Dependency Care Unit. The existing unit provides limited facilities for families with only two bedrooms available for parents who need to stay over.

With a capacity of 30 babies but only facilities for two sets of parents, the Trust identified a need to increase the parent facilities. We undertook feasibility designs for the new Parent Suite on a pro-bono basis to help the Trust raise funds for the project. One of our designers had first-hand experience of the unit as a parent.

The original designs were heavily influenced by our designer’s personal experiences and came as a result of closely working with the team at the Trust. As part of the developing design, we applied HTM and HBN healthcare standards to the scheme but found that the application of these standards did not meet the Trust’s needs and the design was further developed in the original style focusing on the needs of the building users.

The new suite will provide five additional bedrooms with communal areas and a private bereavement suite for parents to say goodbye to their newborn. A private external area was also designed with a small play park to keep siblings entertained. The building has been designed to accommodate additional storeys allowing increased capacity in the future.

Following the completion of the feasibility concepts, large scale charity events have taken place and major businesses like Wm Morrison Supermarkets have committed to supporting the development.

Please see our other healthcare projects.