MP tells Parliament how parents "have ended up in Yarmouth or Nottingham".

Hemel MP, Mike Penning, working alongside Labour MP for Tooting, Sadiq Khan took part in an adjournment debate on Neonatal Care in the House of Commons last night.

The fact that the two MPs worked together shows the depth of cross-party concern over the future of neonatal care in the NHS.

Mr Khan told the House “One in eight babies in the UK requires neonatal care, which represents 80,000 children, 17,000 of whom will require intensive care… In the mid-1980s only one in five babies weighing less than 1 kg at birth could survive. That proportion has increased rapidly and stands at four in five babies.”

“The number of babies born prematurely has also increased significantly in recent years” he added, explaining that this was due to a range of factors including increased prevalence of fertility treatment resulting in an increase in multiple births, women having children later in life and babies born as a result of teenage pregnancy.

Both MPs praised the work of BLISS – the premature baby charity – whose research shows that only 3 per cent of neonatal units can provide one-to-one nursing for premature babies in intensive care.

Mike Penning raised concerns that parents can have to travel long distances to see their babies in special care units and calls for better location of such units. He quoted examples from Hemel Hempstead where parents have had to travel to Great Yarmouth or Nottingham.

After the debate, Mike added: “It is a very distressing time for any parent and the need to travel long distances to get to a special care unit is an extra and unnecessary burden.”

He also highlighted concerns that when difficult choices about allocation of funding are made, it is often the case that neonatal units suffer first.

”This is exactly the case in Hemel, the Birthing Unit was the first to go – more resources must be put into neonatal care” he said.