Critical Care consists of two wards; 1. The Critical Care Unit on the 1st floor including Areas A, B & C. 2. The Medical High Dependency Unit (MHDU) on the second floor of the hospital.
At the most recent inspection in January 2019 by our external regulators, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) the critical care service was assessed as being Good.
Each year we care for around 1200 critically ill patients. Critical Care treats patients with critical illnesses from all specialties, medical and surgical, as well as giving post-operative support for planned, major surgery. The unit constantly monitors patients’ conditions and can offer advanced support for organ failure of the lungs, heart, kidneys and brain. Support for patients who require help with their breathing is provided by a range of ventilators, while support for problems with heart and blood pressure is provided by the continuous infusion of drugs guided by the use of sophisticated monitoring devices. Dialysis for patients with failed kidneys is also provided.
The Critical Care Unit works as a multi-disciplinary team providing one-to-one or one-to-two nursing care, regular physiotherapy, pharmacy, microbiology and nutrition advice, in addition to input from patients’ named medical/surgical teams.
The Critical Care Outreach Team is made up of experienced critical care nurses, supported by the Consultant Intensivists. The role of the team is to assist in the general medical and surgical wards in managing their most acutely ill patients through skill-sharing, practical skills, education and advice. The team also reviews patients discharged from Critical Care.
We have a multi-disciplinary Rehabilitation of Critically Ill Adults service.
We participate in the national programme of Critical Care audit (ICNARC) and are very active in research. For example, at Russells Hall Hospital we recruited more patients to the national COVID trial REMAP-CAP than any other hospital in the UK.
