The Intensive Care and High Dependency Unit cares for the sickest patients in the hospital. These are critically ill patients who need immediate care and constant medical attention.
Patients are often admitted following surgery or a severe accident or illness.
Critically ill patients require support for failing organs. This will include those:
- who are struggling to breathe and need mechanical ventilation by a mask or tube in their windpipe.
- with failing kidneys who need renal replacement treatment.
- with failing hearts and falling blood pressure who need intravenous drugs through a large central vein to maintain blood pressure and heart function.
High Dependency is a slightly level lower of dependency, for patients who require support for one organ and continuous close monitoring.
Our patients need the highest standards of care and we use the latest technology to assess, investigate, monitor and care for our patients. Our dedicated critical care consultants and nurses are also specially trained to support patients and their families during their difficult journeys through intensive care and high dependency treatment and monitoring.
How we care for patients
We have 17 beds – nine Intensive Care and six High Dependency, as well as two extra beds which are used flexibly dependent on demand. Our specialist Burns Unit also has two Intensive Care beds and three High Dependency beds. We have over 90 nurses and 16 consultants and we provide one-to-one or two-to-one nursing support to patients depending on their requirement for intensive or high dependency level care.
Over 1,000 patients are admitted to the unit per year – around one third of these after planned surgery, the other two thirds after a severe accident, illness or emergency surgery. Through our ‘Outreach Service’ we support our colleagues on the wards to prevent patients deteriorating to the point where they need a critical care bed. We also provide outpatient follow-up for our patients after they have been discharged to support any ongoing medical and psychological support to aid their ongoing recovery and rehabilitation.
Infection Prevention
Critically ill patients are vulnerable to new and serious infections and at MFT we are at the forefront of infection prevention. We have strict infection control policies and are consistently rated highly by visitors and relatives or patients when it comes to standards of hygiene and cleanliness on our unit. Our initiatives to reduce the impact of these infections include requiring staff and visitors to use disposable gloves and aprons and the use of isolation cubicles where needed.
Key statistics
- It costs over £1,500 per day to be treated on the Intensive Care Unit
- We spend over £788,000 on life saving drugs every year
- We buy over £500,000 worth of equipment every year to make sure we have the latest technology to help save lives.
Location & Contact details
Ground Floor, Acute Block
University Hospital South Manchester
Southmoor Road
Wythenshawe
M23 9LT
Tel: 0161 291 6403/4
Fax: 0161 291 6421
Admin/Secretarial Team Tel: 0161 291 6420/6422 (8am – 4pm)