FOI 26-395 Neonatal Transfers from Ninewells

Freedom of Information Request

Reference
FOI 26-395 Neonatal Transfers from Ninewells
Request Date
01 Sep 2026
Response Date
29 Sep 2026
Information Requested

Would it be possible to provide data on the number of ambulance transfers requested from Labour Suite, Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, for transfer to alternative maternity units? Ideally, I would be grateful if the information could include: 

  • The number of ambulance requests made. 
  • The urgency/category of each request. 
  • The destination maternity unit, where available. 

 

In addition, NHS Tayside regularly request emergency ambulance transfers from Perth Royal Infirmary and Arbroath Infirmary to Ninewells Hospital for intrapartum emergencies. It would also be helpful to understand the volume of these transfers, although I appreciate these represent a different clinical scenario from transfers undertaken because of neonatal cot capacity issues. 

Response

To reduce the risk of individuals being identified, we have provided the receiving maternity units and the recorded response categories as separate aggregated datasets. We are unable to provide a breakdown linking individual receiving hospitals to specific response categories, as this would create a more granular dataset relating to a small number of transfers and may increase the likelihood of individuals being identified. 

 

This identified ambulance requests for in-utero transfers from Ninewells Hospital to alternative maternity units during the period 1 March 2026 to 31st August 2026.  

 

During the period of 1 March 2026 to 31st August 2026, we identified a total of 15 ambulance requests for in-utero transfers from Ninewells Hospital to alternative maternity units, with 13 completed ambulance transfers to another maternity unit. 

 

Below is a list of receiving hospital: 

 

  • St John’s Hospital, Livingston 
  • Aberdeen Maternity Hospital 
  • Borders General Hospital 
  • Simpson’s Maternity Hospital, Edinburgh 
  • Wishaw General Hospital 
  • Forth Valley Royal Hospital 
  • Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy 

 

8 of these incidents received an Amber1 response and the rest received either a Red2, Yellow3 or timed admission4 response. 

 

We also identified a total of 9 transfers from Perth Royal Infirmary and Arbroath Infirmary to Ninewells Hospital.   

 

Please note that the information held by the Scottish Ambulance Service is limited to records of the ambulance request and transfer. It may be possible to obtain additional information from Public Health Scotland (PHS), which manages the Unscheduled Care Datamart. As patients can be linked across different parts of their NHS care journey within that dataset, PHS may be better placed to identify and analyse the wider patient pathway associated with these transfers. Requests for information held within the Unscheduled Care Datamart should be directed to Public Health Scotland. 

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