Welcome to Critical Care (Intensive Therapies Unit)
Critical Care provides care to unstable or critically unwell patients. It is also referred to as Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Intensive Therapy Unit (ITU) and High Dependency (HDU). Patients may be admitted as an emergency due to serious illness, injury or urgent surgery, or admission may be planned after routine but complex surgery.
About us
We are a large critical care department, admitting around 2250 patients every year. There are three Critical Care units at our Trust, one in each of the acute hospitals, but they are seen as one Critical Care department. Each unit provides facilities to ensure we can respond to the specialties based at each hospital, whilst the three together can respond to the needs of all our patients.
We have a large team (over 250 staff) of medical, nursing and allied health professionals. Additionally, we have a number of very important staff such as our audit, equipment engineers, administrative staff and ward clerks who support both the activities of the team and provide a welcoming face to visitors.
To find out about working in our Critical Care team visit our Work Here page.
We provide a number of other services for our patients including follow-up care and rehabilitation. More information about these services can be found here.
Our Critical Care units
Kent and Canterbury Hospital, Canterbury:
Kent and Canterbury Hospital has 8 mixed level 2 and 3 beds (average yearly admissions 545). The team care for elective and emergency vascular and urology and medical care for renal, neurology patients and neuro-rehab patients awaiting transfer.
William Harvey Hospital, Ashford:
William Harvey Hospital has 16 mixed level beds, (Averaging 1000 yearly admissions). The team here care for medical and surgical patients including, trauma and maxillary facial surgery. The hospital is the South-East centre for Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PPCI) and major trauma unit for east Kent.
The Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital (QEQM), Margate:
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital, Margate has 9 mixed level beds caring for medical and surgical patients,(average yearly admissions 650).
The care on each unit is co-ordinated and delivered by a multidisciplinary team led by a Consultant in Critical Care Medicine, consisting of Critical Care doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, dieticians, pharmacists and speech and language therapists. The Critical Care team work in conjunction with other specialists e.g. microbiologists, surgeons, radiologists and physicians to provide all aspects of care for critically ill patients. We also provide a Critical Care Outreach Team across all three sites that follow up all the patients discharged from the units and aids in the identification and treatment of any patient thought to be at risk of deterioration within wards and departments.
Our staff
The critical care service trust wide is led by an Intensivist and a Consultant Nurse in Critical Care. Each unit has a matron and a lead clinician. The whole team work closely together to ensure a consistent and collaborative approach to patient care across our organisation.
Trust wide
- Critical Care Clinical Lead: Dr Mark Snazelle
- Deputy Head of Nursing for Perioperative Services: Julia Cristall
Kent & Canterbury Critical Care Unit
- Matron: Julia Cristall
- Clinical Lead: Dr Martin Mayall
William Harvey Hospital Critical Care Unit
- Matron: Jane Kirk-Smith
- Clinical Lead: Dr Mark Snazelle
The Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital
- Matron: Deirdre McFarlane
- Clinical Lead: Dr Ana Alegria
