Neurocritical care is led by the neurocritical care team. This team works closely with specialist teams such as neurosurgery or neurology.
Every morning there is a ward round led by the critical care consultant. A full review is made of each patient and a plan for the day made. This plan is later reviewed in the afternoon by the critical care consultant. For longer-term patients, there is a weekly multi-disciplinary (MDT) meeting to discuss longer-term plans, goals and strategies.
In neurocritical care, if a patient requires support from a ventilator they are classified as a Level 3 patient. If they are able to breathe for themselves, but still require critical care for other reasons, then they are classified as a Level 2 patient.
Level 3 patients have a nursing ratio of 1:1. This means there is a nurse allocated to only them 24 hours a day. Level 2 patients have a nursing ration of 2:1. This means a nurse will be allocated to two Level 2 patients.
There is a senior nurse in charge of each shift who oversees the care that is delivered.
Critical Care is led by the Critical Care Team. This team works closely with the specialist teams e.g., neurosurgery or neurology.
Every morning there is a ward round led by a critical care consultant. A full review is made of each patient and a plan made for the day, which is reviewed again in the afternoon.
For longer term patients there is a weekly multi-disciplinary team (MDT) meeting to discuss longer term plans, goals, and strategies.
ICU Team
Our team includes critical care consultants, junior doctors, nurses, nursing assistants, physiotherapists, speech and language therapist, occupational therapist, microbiologists, dietitians, pharmacists, technicians and psychologists.
Daily Routine
Each day between 09:30 and 11:30, the critical care consultant will lead a ward round. The consultant, junior doctors and the nurse in charge go to every bedspace and review each patient and make a plan for the day. In the afternoon at around 15:30 there is another ward round which reviews the patient again and makes a plan for overnight.
The nurses work 12.5 hour shifts and handover is between 07:45 – 08:15 and 19:45 – 20:15.
During the day, patients are visited by physiotherapists and if required; occupational therapy and speech and language therapists.
ICNARC
Our critical care unit submits data to the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC), which compares our performance with comparable critical care units across the UK. For more information please visit www.ICNARC.org
Care Quality Commission
Our last CQC visit (2019) rated the NHNN critical care unit as 'Good'. For more information visit www.cqc.org.uk
We are part of the North East and North Central London (NENCL) Adult Critical Care Network