Intensive care

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Intensive care units (ICU), also known as critical care units, are located in hospitals and provide treatment and monitoring for people who are in a critically ill or unstable condition.

ICUs receive patients from: other hospital wards, high dependency units, direct from surgery or surgical wards, and from accident and emergency departments. ICU beds are a very expensive and limited resource because they provide specialised monitoring equipment and constant access to highly trained nurses (usually one per bed) and medical expertise.

Some ICUâ€™s are attached to units treating specific conditions such as heart, kidney, liver, breathing, circulation, or nervous disorders. Others specialise in the care of babies (neonatal), children (paediatrics) or deal with severe injury or trauma.

Being in an ICU may be a daunting experience both for the patient and their friends and family. Most patients will appear to be asleep due to drugs to make them drowsy (sedatives) and to kill pain (analgesics), and are usually connected to life support equipment by a number of tubes, wires and cables. People in ICU may also look slightly swollen. There are also unfamiliar noises such as alarms and bleeps which help the nurse to monitor the patient.