For the fifth year running, the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (ASPH) has been recognised as a positive outlier in the National Neonatal Audit Programme (NNAP), achieving outstanding results across a number of key audit measures of neonatal care.
The NNAP, led by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, assesses whether babies admitted to neonatal units across England, Scotland and Wales receive consistent, high-quality care. The programme highlights areas of excellence and identifies opportunities for improvement across ten performance indicators.
In the latest audit publication for 2025 results, the trust’s NICU was identified as a positive outlier, achieving three or more standard deviations above expected performance, in the following three measures:
- Deferred cord clamping
- Two-year follow-up assessments for preterm babies born under 30 weeks’ gestation
- Non-invasive ventilation.
Dr Vennila Ponnusamy, Consultant Neonatologist and Neonatal Specialty Lead, said: “We’re delighted to have received an outstanding status on three of the NNAP measures, consistently building on those achieved previously. This demonstrates the excellent standards we aspire to achieve in all areas, and the great quality of care we provide to our babies and families. We are very thankful to our Little Roo Neonatal Fund, for funding new and innovative equipment that facilitate us to deliver non-invasive ventilation to very small babies.”
This further NNAP recognition builds on ASPH’s ongoing commitment to excellence in neonatal care, family-integrated support, and continuous quality improvement.
Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals’ neonatal unit is the regional Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Surrey and cares for some of the smallest and sickest babies from across Surrey, Sussex and Kent who are born as early as 22 weeks. The unit has five nurseries, with eight intensive care cots, eight high-dependency cots, 10 special care and eight transitional cots. The unit recently achieved Platinum Bliss Baby Charter accreditation in Oct 2026, the highest level of recognition awarded by neonatal charity Bliss. St Peter’s is currently the only Level 3 neonatal unit in England to hold this prestigious accreditation, recognising its outstanding commitment to family-integrated care for premature and sick babies and their families.
The Little Roo Neonatal Fund is currently raising funds to purchase two more non-invasive ventilators. If you’d like to support the campaign, please visit www.justgiving.com/campaign/tinylives
