Intensive Care Unit

The intensive care unit (ICU) is a special department at St. Clair Medical Centre that provides a full spectrum of critical medical services to the most critically ill of patients.  Patients who are admitted to the ICU have one or more vitally distressing conditions, are general unstable, and need careful constant monitoring and specific critical care.  Typical ICU patients are those who have just had major surgery; severely injured patients due to a traumatism; patients who present an acute organ failure, such as respiratory failure, heart failure, renal failure, and patients whose conditions are not so severe but could develop complications and rapid deterioration medically due to the original disease.

For these patients, time is of the essence – one could die in minutes if accurate care is not provided, therefore precise techniques and treatment plans are critical in maintaining the patient’s lifeline. Several highly skilled techniques are mostly used specifically by the ICU specialist, monitoring accurate and precise level of blood pressure by invasive artery catheterization; inserting a special device that allows deep access to the vein to administer powerful intravenous medications, such as vasopressors or inotrops to maintain an acceptable level of blood pressure; maintaining an adequate level of oxygenation to patients by artificial ventilation via a facial mask (non-invasive ventilation) or by a tracheal tube where the patient needs to be anesthetized and into a sleep induced state.

Our intensivist, alongside the anaesthesiologists is on duty 24-hours a day to provide for our ICU and IMCU patients’ care

• IMCU– Close monitoring of patients requiring a higher level of post-operative care. Under the supervision of the intensivist, one nurse tends to four beds.
• ICU – Special care and observation of patients following complicated surgery, or infectious patients. All of our ICU rooms are designed to accommodate one patient only to ensure optimal control. The ICU as a whole is organized for the greatest possible patient security, a central nursing station allows for personalized observation of each patient.   Our highly skilled ICU nursing team keeps close observation of the patients (1 nurse per patient) 24-hours a day.

The ICU team is ready at any time to take charge of any eventual distress; it is definitely a team effort where the intensivist is the conductor. All members of the team are important, from support workers to care assistants, to nurses and doctors. Advice from other colleague doctors/surgeons, radiologists, cardiologists etc, can be obtained easily when necessary. Furthermore, the ICU team is ever aware of the patient’s family and relatives’ state of mind. Explanations regarding a patient’s treatment and medical status can be obtained on an appointment only basis by the ICU doctor-in-charge.

To summarize, it could be said that ICU have the ability to support the main vital functions: respiratory, cardiac, renal, neurological, etc.  It is the one place in the hospital where patients in a very critical condition have the highest chance to recover.

A combination of a resident intensivist, highly trained nurses in critical care and sophisticated monitoring equipment, makes up the best Private Intensive Care Unit in the region.

Some surgical packages include care in this unit, and some patients will go here to receive extra monitoring after their operation. The unit is a restricted area and visiting hours are limited.

If your surgery package does not include a stay in ICU, there will be an additional charge for this care.