Vulnerable newborns benefit from latest equipment at MCH

Dr Malhotra at the new MCH

Some of the most vulnerable patients at the new Monash Children’s Hospital (MCH) are now benefitting from a state-of-the-art transport system, the first of its kind in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in Australia.

Neonatologist at Monash Children’s Hospital Dr Atul Malhotra said that with the recent move to the new MCH, the transport system for sick babies was also upgraded, including an incubator, ventilator and humidifier system not in widespread use across the world.

“Our new transport incubator keeps the smallest, most vulnerable of infants warm when they’re first born,” said Dr Malhotra, who is also a Monash University researcher and senior lecturer.

“Our upgraded ventilator, which is generally used in transport of sick patients in ambulances, helicopters and airplanes between hospitals, together with a portable humidification device, gives us the capacity to perform sophisticated invasive or non-invasive ventilation right from the delivery room (birth suite or theatre).”

Thanks to this new equipment, vulnerable newborns at MCH receive the standard of care delivered in the NICU from the exact moment they are born and during transport to NICU.  This includes modes of ventilation previously not available during transport from the birth suite to the NICU. 

Dr Malhotra said that no other hospital in Australia currently has this equipment available for in-hospital transport of newborns.