Neonatal Unit Postcode Lookup

What does this project do?

This tool helps answer a simple but important question: for any given London postcode, which is the nearest neonatal (newborn baby) hospital unit?

When a baby is born prematurely or becomes seriously ill, they may need specialist care in a Neonatal Unit. These units are graded into three levels:

Level	Name	What it provides
Level 1	Special Care	Short-term support for babies who need extra monitoring
Level 2	High Dependency	More intensive support, including help with breathing
Level 3	Neonatal Intensive Care (NICU)	The highest level of care for the most critically ill babies

Not every hospital has every level of unit, so knowing which is closest — and at which level — matters.

How does it work?

The script takes two input files:

• hospitals_refined.csv — A list of ~34 neonatal hospitals across London, including their location (latitude/longitude), care level (1–3), and which side of the Thames they serve.
• postcodes_master.csv — A list of ~326,000 London-area postcodes with their geographic coordinates.

It then runs through three steps:

1. North or South of the River?

London's neonatal care is broadly organised around the River Thames. The script classifies each postcode as being on the North or South side based on its area code (the letters at the start of the postcode). Some hospitals near the river borders serve both sides.

2. Find the nearest hospitals

For each postcode, the script finds the closest neonatal hospital on the same side of the river, using accurate geographic distance calculations (Haversine formula). It does this four times:

• Closest unit at any level
• Closest Level 1 (Special Care)
• Closest Level 2 (High Dependency)
• Closest Level 3 (NICU)

3. Output the results

The results are saved to Neonatal_Lookup_Final.csv with one row per postcode:

Column	Example
Postcode	BR1 1AA
Side	South
Closest_Any	Princess Royal (PRUH) (5.05km)
Closest_L1	Darent Valley (17.28km)
Closest_L2	Princess Royal (PRUH) (5.05km)
Closest_L3	Kings College Hospital (10.51km)

How to run it

1. Make sure you have Python 3 installed
2. Install the required packages:

   pip install pandas numpy scipy
   

3. Place hospitals_refined.csv and postcodes_master.csv in the same folder as the script
4. Run:

   python postcode_lookup.py
   

5. The output will be saved as Neonatal_Lookup_Final.csv