Critical care transfer teams’ new base opens in Bradley Stoke as former patients and MP join celebrations

University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust celebrated the first year anniversary of its incredible shared base for the three dedicated Critical Care Transfer Services in the South West.

SoNAR, WATCh and Retrieve – the services responsible for transferring critically ill patients across the whole of the South West of England and beyond - moved into the same location for the first time in 2024.

It is one of the first times a co-location of critical care transfer services has been achieved in England and the only base of its kind in the South West.  

SoNAR (South West Neonatal Advice and Retrieval) is the service for neonatal babies, WATCh (Wales and West Acute Transport for Children) provide paediatric critical care and transport and Retrieve is responsible for transferring adults in need of critical care.

Patrick Turton, Lead Nurse for SoNAR said: “The new base has saved 20 minutes on our journey time to each hospital. This has a direct impact on all the Trusts and families we serve. It means a specialist neonatal critical care team can be at the baby’s cotside sooner. SoNAR undertakes 1200 transfers a year, many of them intensive care patients, so these time savings bring benefits to many families and hospital teams. Being together also means we can share our resources with WATCh and Retrieve making all three services more efficient and resilient.

The teams from SoNAR, WATCh and Retrieve have already seen improvements to the services they deliver.

For WATCh it means quicker access to both the South West of England and South Wales. With the number of referrals increasing each year this is having a positive impact on the critical care children across both regions receive.

Since being at the new base WATCh has started a project using video conferencing, allowing them to speak to clinicians from other Trusts, see the child being cared for and aid clinical decision making.

Claire Perrett, Lead Nurse for WATCh, said: “Offering remote advice on critical care needs means some children may be able to stay in hospitals closer to home with continued WATCh support.”

WATCh had its busiest year ever in 2024, with 650 transfers of children across the South West and South Wales.

Retrieve also saw their busiest year ever in 2024, making more than 1100 transfers. Their new location means they can reach all their hospital partners in a similar amount of time.

Amy Paul, Lead Nurse for Retrieve said: “Since Retrieve launched in 2020 we have completed more than 3500 transfers and 2024 was our busiest year yet which coincided with us moving to a 24-hours-a-day service.

“Every time we make a transfer we save the hospital and staff time and those hospitals can care for other people while we care for their patients on the move.”

Prior to Spring 2024 all three services (SoNAR, WATCh, Retrieve) were all based in different locations around Bristol. Now they have new shared home in Bradley Stoke.

Close to both the M4 and M5, the location was chosen using sophisticated travel-time mapping, identifying a location which allows all three teams to respond to calls from hospitals across the South West (and in the case of WATCh, the South West of England and South Wales) more equitably.

The base has been designed to house colleagues from all three critical care transfer services, and their fleet of new ambulances and drivers, supplied by Bristol Ambulance Emergency Medical Service.  

All three teams use the base 24 hours a day and are ready to leave at any time, travelling to critically ill patients across the region. 

Ingrid Barker, Joint Chair for North Bristol NHS Trust and University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This has been a wonderful opportunity to celebrate these three fantastic services, who all do such an important job caring for people who are critically ill and injured.

“We are committed to providing more equitable care, and this base reflects that. We have already had great feedback from patients who have been transferred by SoNAR, WATCh and Retrieve in the past year.

“Being told you, or a loved one, needs specialist critical care at a hospital potentially far from home is a time of great worry. With this new base SoNAR, WATCh and Retrieve are able to help people on the road to recovery that little bit sooner.”

Former patients, and their families, joined the teams alongside fellow UHBV colleagues and visitors from NHS England, NHS Wales Joint Commissioning Committee, North Bristol NHS Trust and The Grand Appeal to celebrate the new base’s success, one year after the services first started to move in.  

Vickie Julian, whose son Freddie was transferred from Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital for Wales, in Cardiff, to Bristol Royal Hospital for Children (BRHC) by WATCh when he needed life-saving care attended the anniversary event.

Freddie was transferred to BRHC as he was in need of UHBW’s new paediatric ECMO machine, which acted as his heart and lungs while he recovered in intensive care.

Vickie said: “Having this base on the M4 made it possible for the WATCh team to get to Freddie in time, give him the care he urgently needed, and got Freddie to PICU so quickly. I dread to think what the outcome would have been had this service not existed.

“Thank you so much to the WATCh Team, and to PICU in Bristol Children’s Hospital, we honestly owe them everything for saving Freddie.”