Our goals are:

• To provide safe, efficient and timely retrieval and transfer of neonates for critical care and other specialist care in tertiary hospitals across Ireland and abroad.
  
  
• To enhance clinical outcomes for critically ill neonates by providing early appropriate transfer decision making, pre-transport stabilisation and specialised care en-route.

The Department of Health and Children approved the programme as a 9-5/7 service in 1998 and the first NNTP patient was transported in March 2001. Following much demand from service users, the NNTP hours of operation were extended in December 2013 and since then we have been delivering a 24/ 7 service.  Circa 600 acute neonatal transports are completed by the NNTP annually, a figure which represents approximately 92% of the total number of newborn infants transferred for critical care in Ireland each year. The NNTP is now universally accepted as both an essential component and integral part of the Irish national neonatal clinical network (HSE's National Neonatal Clinical Programme, 2015)

From April 2025, the NNTP has expanded it's service provision to have the capacity to facilitate bi-directional transports, of all neonatal acuities, with the addition of twelve hour, five day a week, 'Nurse led' team.

The NNTP transport service is intended for any infant up to the age of 28 days (corrected gestational age) who requires inter hospital transport for admission  . This care may include, but is not limited to speciality services including:

• Neonatology
• Cardiology
• Surgery
• Neurology
• or a higher level of intensive care than is available at the referring hospital.

The majority of infants are transported to Dublin hospitals but the NNTP will also transport neonates to regional neonatal/surgical intensive care units nationally or internationally as required.

• The programme accepts calls for critical care 'Red Team' transfers, twenty fours a day, seven days a week, on 1800222378.
• Calls for infants of lesser acuity, also accessed on 1800222378 intended for the Nurse led 'Blue team' are accepted Mon-Fri between 08.00-20.00 (excluding PHs)
• Calls are processed on this number by a dedicated retrieval /transport call handling desk within the NAS where the referring hospital is connected directly with the NNTP on call teams.
• A dedicated neonatal transport consultant , neonatal  nurses x2 , neonatal fellow/registrar and  ambulance operator/EMT/ paramedics are available to set out within 40 minutes to any hospital for a sick infant.
• The teams travel in a  dedicated NNTP ambulance, designed and equipped especially for neonatal retrievals/transports.
• When air transport is required, the NNTP's air transport modules are utilised in the Irish Air Corps' helicopters/fixed wing aircraft.
• The team provides stabilisation advice and intensive care/neonatal care at the referring hospital, prior to, as well as during the transport to the relevant receieving  centre.
• The NNTP conducts one criticial care transport at a time, except in the case of twins when if necesary, both infants can be accomodated together in our road ambulance.
• So too, in the case of nurse led transports, one patient is transported at any one time except in the case of twins,  who may be facilitaed together when feasible.  
• If two or more transport requests are received simultaneously, priority is given to the most critically ill baby and/or he baby in a hospital with limited personnel/resources to provide care for extended periods of times
• Service Guidelines and protocols are available in all units and available on this site.