To mark World Patient Safety Day 2025, a special episode of Voices for Safety Podcast explores how NIHR-funded research is helping improve care for pre-term babies through the PremPath study, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) NIHR Policy Research Programme. The conversation highlights the optimisation pathway, ethnographic insights into neonatal care, and the challenges of coordination, communication, and equity. It also shares practical recommendations to improve care experiences for families and staff, emphasising the emotional and relational aspects of patient safety.

Our host Dr Louise Gorman is joined by:

• Prof Nicola Mackintosh, Professor in Social Science applied to Health at the University of Leicester and research co-lead at the NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Research Collaboration (GM PSRC), and
• Dr Julie Roberts – Research Fellow at the SAPPHIRE group (Social science, APPlied Healthcare and Improvement Research), University of Leicester.

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The PremPath study, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), highlights how current care for preterm babies varies across NHS trusts, despite existing guidance setting out a pathway to optimise care. It explores how this variation arises and makes recommendations for ensuring equitable delivery to help improve outcomes for all.

The study, put together by health experts from the University of Leicester in conjunction with neonatal charity, Bliss, looked at how care for babies born prematurely (before 37 weeks of pregnancy) in England is working in practice.

The researchers have now released their findings to the Department for Health and Social Care to allow policy makers to consider taking next steps.

Recommendations include:

• Standardising maternity and neonatal data systems across England
• Reviewing processes to make sure families have equitable access to care, information and supportive resources
• Improving coordination between neonatal units and recovery/postnatal care
• Recognising the value of audit data, but also its limitations and potential unintended consequences for care delivery, and parent and staff experiences
• Clarifying responsibility and routine processes for counselling and preparing parents for preterm birth
• Reviewing infrastructure and processes to support delivery of place of birth policy
• Supporting further work on a more holistic approach to preterm care including psychological as well as clinical aspects

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