In Wales, approximately 10,000 people are admitted to critical care per year.
Many of those patients will be ‘critically ill’ when they are admitted which means that one or more of their major organs are failing (e.g. heart, lungs, liver, kidney). Some people may refer to critical care as ICU, ITU, intensive care, HDU or high dependency which can be confusing. For the purpose of the information provided on this webpage we will refer to it as critical care.
The critical care unit has a wide range of staff which includes critical care doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals who can utilise a wide range of equipment and medicines to provide organ support, treatment and rehabilitation to help you recover.
In critical care, patients have much greater care needs than those on the general wards within the hospital. Each patient has a nurse allocated to care for them during the day and another during the night, and a team of critical care doctors led by a critical care consultant assess their illness and response to treatment throughout the day.
Across Wales, the following hospitals have a critical care unit:
Click here for more information about the University Hospital of Wales critical care unit or if you would like information about Cardiff and Vale University Health Board please click here.
Click here for more information about the University Hospital of Wales critical care unit or if you would like information about Cardiff and Vale University Health Board please click here.
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