NEONATAL services in Wales performed better in 2016 against almost all the measures in an audit that charts improvements in care for pre-term babies.

But a neonatal expert has stressed that despite this, there are aspects of care in which services in Wales can do much better.

The latest National Neonatal Audit Programme (NNAP) report, from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), shows improvements in care for pre-term babies in England, Scotland and Wales. It also reveals variations in service delivery, indicating many babies still do not get the care they need.

Ninety-eight per cent of neonatal units in the three countries responded to the audit, which this year assessed the care given to nearly 100,000 babies.

In Wales, the report highlights a range of improvements, including:

• The number of babies born at less than 32 weeks whose temperature is recorded within an hour of admission within the recommended range of 36.5-37.5°C, increased from 56 per cent in 2015, to 67 per cent last year;

• Reporting of data from a two-year follow-up check for babies born at below 30 weeks rose from 31 per cent to 60 per cent.

"Wales has done better in almost every single NNAP audit outcome measure and data compliance in 2016 when compared to 2015," said Dr Roshan Adappa, RCPCH Wales representative on the audit.

“Measures that have shown improvement, but in which Wales can do much better, are the proportion of babies receiving any of their own mother’s milk on discharge and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) screening of the eyes of premature babies."

Wales was the only neonatal network area last year where fewer than 90 per cent of babies had on-time screening for ROP recorded, though such screening in Wales improved from 86 per cent in 2015 to 88 per cent in 2016.

In Wales last year, 51 per cent of babies born at less than 33 weeks was receiving any of their own mother’s milk at the point of discharge home from a neonatal unit. The average is 59 per cent.