FOI 26-353 Neonatal Transfer Data
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 26-353 Neonatal Transfer Data
- Request Date
- 10 Aug 2026
- Response Date
- 07 Sep 2026
- Information Requested
Please provide the information for 1 January 2023 to the most recent available date, broken down separately by 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 to date. Please provide the information supplied in response to FOI 25-579 in the same format, but with the additional annual breakdown for 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 to date, and with the receiving/referring hospital information for transfers to and from Ninewells and Wishaw included.
Please provide the number of transfers and, separately, unique babies transferred between neonatal units where the purpose of the transfer was to provide or continue Level 3 neonatal intensive care.
Please include transfers:
- from a non-Level 3 unit to a Level 3 unit
- between Level 3 units
- from a Level 3 unit to another unit for ongoing/repatriation care
- between any Scottish neonatal units
- between Scotland and England in either direction.
- referring hospital
- receiving hospital
- date
- year
- gestational age
- whether the transfer occurred within 72 hours of birth
- reason for transfer
- whether it was an uplift, capacity/resources transfer, repatriation or other
- whether the transfer was within Scotland or involved England.
All Scottish receiving hospitals
Please specifically identify transfers into every Scottish hospital providing Level 3 intensive care, including but not limited to:
- Glasgow/Royal Hospital for Children
- Edinburgh/Royal Hospital for Children and Young People;
- Aberdeen/Foresterhill;
- Ninewells Dundee;
- Wishaw General Hospital.
This should include both directions of transfer. For example, please include:
- Ninewells → Glasgow/Edinburgh/Aberdeen;
- Wishaw → Glasgow/Edinburgh/Aberdeen;
- Glasgow/Edinburgh/Aberdeen → Ninewells;
- Glasgow/Edinburgh/Aberdeen → Wishaw;
and any other Level 3-to-Level 3 transfer.
Transfers to England
Please provide all transfers of babies from Scottish hospitals to English hospitals for Level 3 neonatal intensive care, including:
- referring Scottish hospital;
- receiving English hospital/NHS Trust;
- year;
- gestational age;
- reason for transfer;
- whether the transfer was due to lack of cot/staffing capacity, specialist clinical requirements or another reason;
- whether the baby was subsequently repatriated to Scotland.
Capacity and unavailable cots
Please provide the number of occasions during the period when a baby requiring Level 3 intensive care could not be transferred to the intended receiving hospital because of/ rejected referral
- lack of intensive-care cot capacity;
- staffing limitations;
- unit closure to new admissions;
- lack of appropriate clinical/specialist capacity;
- any other operational reason.
Where available, please provide the intended receiving hospital and the hospital the baby was ultimately transferred to, including transfers to England.
Please provide the transfer numbers for each year broken down into:
- <27 weeks;
- 27–31+6 weeks
- 32–35+6 weeks
- 36 weeks and above.
transfers occurring within 72 hours of birth from those occurring later.
Multiple transfers and repatriation
- number of unique babies transferred
- total number of transport episodes
- number of babies transferred more than once
- number of repatriation transfers.
Data definitions Please provide the definition/coding criteria used for “Intensive Care” / “Level 3” in the dataset, including whether this is based on the care the baby was actually receiving, the designation of the unit, BAPM categories of care, or another classification.
- Response
Please find attached a spreadsheet containing the recorded information held by the Scottish Ambulance Service relating to neonatal intensive care transfers from 1 January 2023 to 31 July 2026.
The information has been extracted from records where:
- The BAPM Category of Care was recorded as Intensive Care;
- The transport status was recorded as Dispatched; and
- The transport team departed the referring hospital with the baby.
Important information to consider when interpreting this data
In accordance with statistical disclosure control principles, where the number of incidents is fewer than five but greater that zero, figures have been suppressed and shown as "<5". This is because disclosure of very small numbers may increase the risk of individuals being identified when combined with other information that may be available. Due to the small number of transfers involved we are unable to break the information into individual years.
Where suppression has been applied, the exact figure is exempt from disclosure under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information), as disclosure could lead to the identification of individuals and would therefore contravene the data protection principles.
- Information previously supplied under FOI 25-579
The information previously supplied under FOI 25-579 has been updated to include the period 1 January 2023 to 31 July 2026, is contained within the workbook under tab “Level 3 IC”.
- All Scottish receiving hospitals
The information is contained within the workbook in tab “Level 3 IC” with summary data included in tabs:
- Level 3 Data
- Level 3 IC_Operational
- Level 3 IC_Before72_Gestation
This shows transfers into each of the level 3 units broken down by the referring hospital, gestation, time period and reason for transfer.
- 3.Transfers to England
The following tabs in Workbook 3 shows transfers into English Hospitals broken down by the referring hospital, gestation, time period and reason for transfer.
- Level 3 IC
- Level 3 IC_Operational
- Level 3 IC_Before72_Gestation
Please note that, from the data available to analyse, we are unable to report on whether the baby was subsequently repatriated to Scotland.
While English hospitals have been identified, the Scottish Ambulance Service does not record the neonatal unit level designation for English hospitals within this dataset. It is therefore not possible to provide a Level 1 / Level 2 / Level 3 classification for English hospitals.
- Capacity and unavailable cots
We are unable to report on the number of occasions during the period when a baby requiring Level 3 intensive care could not be transferred to the intended receiving hospital because of a rejected referral. To provide this information would require review and interpretation of individual records and the creation of new information. It is for this reason we have applied section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002, as information not held.
- Response Documents
