Adult critical care – also known as Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Intensive Therapy Unit (ITU), or High Dependency Unit (HDU) – provides specialist care for patients who are critically ill or medically unstable. Patients may be admitted in an emergency due to serious illness or injury, or in a planned way after complex surgery.
Care is delivered by a multidisciplinary team led by critical care consultants and includes doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, pharmacists, dietitians, and speech and language therapists. They work closely with other specialists such as microbiologists, surgeons, radiologists, and physicians. We also operate an Acute Response Team across all three hospitals to rapidly identify and support patients at risk of deterioration.
Our critical care facilities
- Leicester Royal Infirmary: 25 Level 3 beds for mixed medical and surgical care
- Glenfield Hospital: 32 Level 3 beds, including specialist care for cardiac ICU, ECMO, and Severe Acute Respiratory Failure (SARF)
- Leicester General Hospital: 6 Level 2 high dependency beds for mixed medical and surgical patients
More information
Our teams are always available to answer your questions. Each unit provides information leaflets, and additional guidance is available via the ICUsteps website.