More space for intensive care unit

Press, 24 September 1982, Page 4

More space for intensive care unit

Christchurch Hospital’s intensive care unit moved this week into a spacious new ward that is four times the size of its old, cramped quarters.

The unit is now in Ward 9, formerly the children’s ward, and the extra space means there is now ample room for all the sophisticated and expensive equipment that surrounds each patient. In its old ward, the lifesupport equipment for each patient used a lot of available space. Nursing and medical staff now have a lot more room to move.

Refurbishing the new unit cost the North Canterbury Hospital Board about $109,000. As well as the main ward and private cubicles for patients, the unit has a seminar room for staff training, an interview room, offices, a waiting room for visitors, facilities for relatives who wish to stay overnight, a room with a bed for the doctor on call (one is on call 24 hours a day), a room for respiratory technicians, medications rooms, a sluice room,, and a sterile preparation room.

Thousands of dollars worth of sophisticated life-support equipment is used in the unit. Most patients have a cardiac monitor, a catheter to

measure arterial pressure, a cardiac output computer, a ventilator (or respirator), intravenous infusions and infusion pumps. There are also machines to measure cranial pressure for patients with head injuries and brain diseases, and bronchoscopes. The ward has the capacity for six patients, and there are four nurses rostered on duty 24 hours a day. Often one nurse is responsible for one patient. Patients can include those who have just had major surgery; those with a cardiac condition who are too ill to be moved to Princess Margaret Hospital; car accident victims with multiple fractures, head injuries, or serious internal injuries; people with gun or stab wounds, and people with dangerous respiratory problems. Medical and nursing staff in the ward are all fully qualified, with considerable experience and expertise in the care of the critically ill, says the unit’s head, Dr Keith Hickling. “There are a large variety of acute, life-threatening illnesses that come in here, and we need that expertise,” he said.

Medical specialists visit the ward frequently.