Review of acute hospital services in the Mid - Health Service Executive

Critical Care Network
The local elements of the network:
• There is no provision of critical care at the ‘local’ centre;
Review of acute hospital services in HSE Mid-West
An action plan for acute and community services
• The local ‘centre of excellence’ is still a key member of the critical care network. It
provides a post-acute/step down/rehabilitation programme that:
- Enables the safe, early transfer of the patient closer to home; and
- Optimises the patient flow through the regional critical care service, ensuring the most
effective use of these beds.
At the regional centre:
• The critical care centre is a key service of the regional ‘centre of excellence’, co-located
with those acute specialties most likely to need immediate access;
• There is a full multi-disciplinary critical care team, reflecting the complexity of patient
illness, co-morbidities and management needs, led by consultant intensivists, with input
from ANPs / CNSs in intensive care, physiotherapists, respiratory technicians, clinical
laboratory medicine specialists, nutritionists, pharmacists, radiographers, speech and
language therapists, occupational therapists, medical physicists and engineers and staff
in training;
• The critical care centre delivers:
- A 24/7 system of comprehensive Level 2 and Level 3 critical care support for
seriously ill patients and for patients undergoing complex planned or emergency
surgery 44 ;
- A 24/7 system of preventative critical care outreach surveillance to identify ‘at risk’
patients on the acute general wards; and
- A critical care rehabilitation programme, delivered across the whole network.
44 Improved outcomes are reported for patients undergoing complex surgery if they have Level 2 care for the first 24 to 48 hours,
with reduced complications and shorter lengths of hospital stay. Modernising care for patients undergoing major surgery,
Improving Surgical Outcomes Group, 2005.
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