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The North West Cot Bureau covers the Greater Manchester, East Cheshire & High Peak Neonatal Network and also the Lancashire and South Cumbria Neonatal Network.
Cot Bureau co-ordinators telephone every hospital within the Networks three times a day to check their cot status and the results are stored in a database which can then be used to match neonates requiring postnatal transfer to an appropriate neonatal cot.
The same system is also used to identify appropriate, available cots when considering antenatal transfers. If the neonatal unit at a hospital could accomodate the as yet unborn neonate then the delivery suite is also contacted to see if they are in a position to accept the mother. If confirmed then the referring and accepting consultants are put in touch and the transfer can be formally arranged.
The North West Perinatal Cot Bureau is based at St Mary's Hospital in Manchester, a tertiary referral centre
providing the full range of neonatal intensive care services.
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