Critical Care

The Critical Care Department provides highly specialist services to people who are critically ill during a medical emergency. We also provide crucial specialist support and expertise to other vital services across City and Sandwell Hospitals. These include Accident and Emergency, general surgery, paediatrics (specialist care for children) and orthopaedics (specialist care for bones and joints).

A dedicated consultant is present seven days a week at both hospitals, with each site also having out-of-hours support from intermediate level staff.

The service is complemented by an outreach service, which provides support to staff and patients in general wards, and the long-term follow-up service which supports patients before admission and after discharge.

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Team

The Critical Care Team is made up of highly skilled consultants, doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, pharmacists, dietitians, radiologists, pharmacists and many more.

Critical Care Consultants:

Dr Anand Arora
Dr Jana Bellin
Dr John Bleasdale
Dr John Hulme
Dr Santhana Kannan
Dr Emma Leno
Dr David Newbould
Dr Mumta Patel
Dr Rupali Saluja
Dr Nick Sherwood

Critical Care Senior Nurses:
Rebecca O’Dwyer (Matron)

Services

Critical care units
Our two critical care units each have 16 beds and provide specialist treatment and care for the most seriously unwell patients. The units care for both males and females and we make every effort to maintain privacy and dignity at all times.

Every patient in critical care will have a consultant who is responsible for their treatment. The level of nursing care a patient in critical care needs will depend on their condition. Some patients will need a nurse to look after them at all times, and others may share a nurse with another patient. We continually assess our patient’s needs throughout the day to make sure they are given the most appropriate care.

Outreach
The critical care outreach team (consisting of critical care nurses) also assist ward staff in caring for their most critically ill patients to prevent their condition from worsening and to administer prompt treatment and refer the patient to the critical care unit if needed. The outreach team is also involved in reviewing patients who have been discharged from critical care to the ward, but who still need observation.

Follow-up support service
We also offer a follow-up support service to continue giving our patients support after they have left critical care and when they have returned home. This service offers patients the opportunity to discuss any physical or mental worries they may have both before and after being discharged from hospital so that appropriate support can be arranged.

Pharmacy support
This role is provided by a consultant pharmacist with a specialist interest in critical care. This has greatly improved the delivery of services, and made the control of drugs significantly more cost-effective.

Patient and carer forum
A critical care patient and carer forum/support group is held four times a year which provides the opportunity for patients and carers to talk about their experiences of critical care with members of our team.

Other services:

Further patient services available or general initiatives in the Critical Care Department include:

• Outpatient clinics
• Patient forums
• A national research project
• Development of Rehabilitation and Continuity of Care teams
• Development of patients’ relatives information and patient satisfaction questionnaire
• Bereavement service

Patient Stories

Please feel free to share your experiences of this service. Please e-mail your views to swbh.comms@nhs.net

Patient Information

Information leaflets
Road to recovery 

Useful websites

Intensive Care Society (see ‘patients & relatives’)
www.ics.ac.uk

NHS Choices
www.nhs.uk/conditions/Intensive-care/

Contacts

If you have a relative or friend being cared for on one of our units, a nominated friend or family member is welcome to call us any time, day or night. When you contact the unit the receptionist will put you through to the nurse who is looking after them. Due to confidentiality we cannot give detailed information over the phone.

City Hospital Critical Care
0121 507 5099 or 0121 507 5098

Sandwell Hospital Critical Care
0121 507 3311

Information for researchers

Information for patients