St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital's Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is staffed by a multidisciplinary team of professionals, including doctors, nurses and allied health professionals.
Our hospital has
been providing excellence in care for critically ill patients since we introduced intensive care beds at St Andrew's in 1964. Our 15-bed state-of-the-art ICU opened in its new format in 2010.
While our priority is to ensure patients make a quick and full recovery, we also realise that this can be an anxious time for loved ones. We wish to do all we can to reduce this anxiety for you and work with you to provide first class care and service.
The unit is run by a dedicated team of professionals and senior ICU specialists; a skilled ICU registrar is in the hospital 24/7 and is dedicated solely to this unit. The unit's specialist team provide on call care every hour of every day.
Communication with the ICU
It is important that you are kept informed of how your loved ones are doing while in the ICU. Our intensive care specialists, registrars and the nursing staff are happy to discuss their care of your loved one on a daily basis, and explain their progress. The ICU medical team will keep close contact with all the other medical teams involved in the care of your loved one, to ensure that the best possible outcome is achieved.
We have found it is best that a family nominate one person to be the contact to receive updates on patients. That person can speak with our physicians and nurses about how the patient is progressing and then pass this information on to their family and friends. This is particularly important with telephone updates – each time the nurse delivers the same message on the phone reduces the time he or she can spend with your loved one. Please nominate a spokesperson for phone calls and allow that person to share the updates and information.
The medical specialist leads a multi-disciplinary round several times a day. The morning rounds take place between 8am and 10.30am daily and so the best time for you to contact the unit for an update is around 11am.
Visiting hours and patient rest period
Visitors are welcome in the ICU between 11am-12.30pm and 3pm-8pm.
Sufficient rest is a crucial component of a patient’s recovery and we operate a patient rest period between 1pm and 3pm.
For more information on the St Andrew's ICU unit: