The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and Special Care Nursery (SCN) The Centenary Hospital for Women and Children at the Canberra Hospital

The ACT and its surrounding region have a delivery population of 8000 babies per year.
The Canberra Hospital attends to more than 2500 of these deliveries. Each year, up to 700 infants will need to be admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and Special Care Unit (SCN) for highly specialised care or support.

The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is the only level III tertiary care neonatal unit in the region. Approximately 30% of babies admitted to the unit are from outside of the ACT, from either NSW or Victoria.

The NICU and SCN provide the following level of care:

• The NICU contains 20 beds for babies with life threatening problems, who are very premature or of an extremely low birth weight.
• The Special Care Nursery has 14 beds. This area is for the babies who are growing up, learning to feed and preparing for discharge.

Mission Statement

The NICU and SCN provides for babies, families & staff an environment that is:

• Developmentally appropriate
• Family centred
• Functional, safe and comfortable
• Technologically up to date and able to meet future needs