ABSTRACT
The United Kingdom Neonatal Staffing Study (UKNSS), with the endorsement of key professional organisations representing the neonatal intensive care staff, was conducted with the aim of obtaining a contemporary evidence-base to inform the debate concerning the optimal configuration of service. This chapter examines the use of Bayesian techniques to illustrate how the prior beliefs of neonatal doctors may be amended in the light of the UKNSS results relating to the size of unit. It became evident at an early stage of the UKNSS that one major factor in the acceptance of the results by doctors who work in the specialty would be their prior beliefs about performance differences between bigger and smaller units. The UKNSS found that neonatal intensive care appeared to operate already on a networked basis, such that the sickest infants in smaller units were often, but not always, transferred to larger units soon after birth.
