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Sunderland hospital unit will be one of best in UK
Critically ill patients on Wearside will be cared for in one of the most advanced units in the UK.
Cutting-edge technology – some used for the first time – will make the new ICCU (integrated critical care unit) at Sunderland Royal Hospital one of the best nationally.
The new unit is part of a 33million project that will also include extra wards and more parking.
The new design will help fight hospital infections and give better facilities for patients, staff and visitors.
Dave McNicholas, ICCU manager at Sunderland Royal Hospital, said: "It will be one of the best intensive care units in the country.
"We are already scoring in the top 10 per cent in our results. This will allow us hopefully to do even better."
He added: "The main benefits are infection control and privacy for patients.
"There will be more space, better facilities for relations, and new technology."
Among the plans for the 18-bed unit are:
- Individual rooms, each with special glass walls that become opaque at
the flick of a switch.
- Separate corridors for visitors, staff and deliveries to cut the risk of infection.
- Mobile "arms" suspended from the ceiling to carry all tubes and wires – including monitors, oxygen, pumps – avoiding the need for wall sockets.
- Electronic gadgets staff can wear around their neck to communicate with each other.
- Technology allowing medics to view patient monitors from other rooms.
- Two sinks in each room – one "clean" for handwashing and one "dirty" for waste bedbath water, etc – to help prevent infections.
- A special training room with realistic patient dummy, which is not available in any other ICCU and funded by donations to the unit.lTwo-way bins, which can be emptied without even having to enter the room.
Each room will have its own computer allowing access to X-rays, scans and patient notes.
The unit is also set to have an electronic pharmacy, using staff fingerprint recognition, that can also send an alert for replacement drug stocks.
There will be a veranda outside and visitors will have bigger waiting areas and improved quiet rooms.
Staff, who have helped design the new unit, will have new facilities including changing areas and training room.
The new ICCU – due to open in a year's time – will be 180 per cent bigger than the current department, which was set up in 2000 but has never been a purpose-built facility.
The ICCU cares for about 1,200 patients a year, offering both intensive care – those on life support machines – and high dependency, for those who need a high level of nursing care.
The unit has more than 100 staff, including doctors, nurses, dietitian, pharmacist, physiotherapists.
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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