HDU

Opening

In April construction began on the conversion of the room 1 in PICU into the new HDU. This involved the refurbishment and relocation of equipment into a new store room. The PICU staff where exposed to a few weeks of heavy noise and interesting varnish smells. But finally in June the room was complete.

The High Dependency Unit in PICU was opened on Monday 21st June 2010. With an official blessing from the Kai Atawhai, in the presence of honoured guests.

The first patient was then admitted to HDU.

Introduction

The unit has six HDU beds and is staffed at a 1:2 staff to patient ratio.

HDU admits patients with acute surgical/medical conditions or who have an acute reversible single organ failure and are at risk of developing complications. All patients require a high level of observation and monitoring, frequent interventions and/or therapies not available on the ward.

All admission are discussed with the on-call PICU consultant and patients are under shared care between their primary team and the PICU consultant. At times patient admission to HDU may be from PICU as a step-down prior to transfer to either Starship's wards or referring hospitals. The HDU team are an integral part of the PICU facility.