Critical Care
We provide critical care services at University Hospital Lewisham and Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
The critical care unit is designed and equipped to provide care to seriously ill patients who need specialist monitoring and treatment.
Our dedicated and highly trained team is made up of doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, pharmacists and dieticians work closely to ensure patients receive the highest standard of treatment and individualised care.
Conditions we can treat
Patients are admitted to the Critical Care Unit from a number of sources including the emergency department, the operating theatre or hospital ward. They come with a range of conditions including sepsis, acute kidney injury, cardiac arrest or respiratory failure.
- Heart-related emergencies: heart attack, heart failure, cardiac-related shock
- Brain and neurological emergencies: stroke, major head trauma
- Respiratory conditions: respiratory failure, pneumonia, COPD exacerbations, acute lung injury, Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS)
- Kidney and other organ failures: acute kidney failure, multi organ failure
- Severe infections: general infections requiring intensive monitoring, sepsis
- Trauma and injury: major trauma from road traffic accidents, falls, burns, industrial accidents, violence related injuries
- Toxic exposures: poisoning, drug or chemical toxicity
- Post operative care: recovery after major surgery
- Circulatory problems: shock from any cause (blood loss, infection, heart issues)
Who we can help
Adults of any age who need management for a critical illness.
Services available
Our unit provides a range of services including mechanical ventilation, cardiac monitoring, including cardiac output monitoring.
Patients who are mechanically ventilated are also given a patient diary which charts their stay in critical care.
Once they are discharged from hospital the patient is invited back to attend an appointment at the critical care follow up clinic which enables them to look back over this diary and talk about any psychological or physical issues they have since their stay in critical care.
How to get a referral
Referrals to critical care are made from the critical care outreach team or medical staff within the hospital, or via the Emergency Bed Service (EBS).
Visiting information
Only two visitors are allowed at a patient's bedside at any one time.
Please do not bring live flowers to the unit as these are not allowed for infection prevention reasons.
Mobile phones may be used in visitors’ areas, but these must be switched off before visiting patients on the unit.
Visiting hours
Queen Elizabeth Hospital: 12 – 5pm and 6 – 7.30pm.
University Hospital Lewisham: 10am to 12 noon and 4pm to 8pm
If you need to visit outside of these times this can be arranged with the nurse in charge.
Keeping our patients safe
On entering the ICU, we ask that all visitors wash their hands, put on a plastic apron and use the alcohol gel at the unit entrance.
This is to help keep the ICU clean and to help prevent the spread of infection to other areas of the hospital. It protects the ICU patients, you and other contacts.