Te Rui Atawhai
Wellington Intensive Care Unit
information for healthcare professionals
mā ngā kaimahi hauora
Kia Ora
This website provides information for healthcare professionals about the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in Wellington Regional Hospital. We provide tertiary intensive care for patients across the lower North and Upper South islands.
We are one of New Zealand's largest ICUs, admitting over 2000 patients every year into our 24 bed facility. In early 2025 we will expand into a newly built 12-bed HDU, taking our total capacity to 36 Critical Care beds.
WHAT IS A TERTIARY ICU?
What we do
We provide Intensive & High Dependency Care for a wide range of patients with surgical & medical conditions. These include cardiothoracic, neuro, general, upper gastrointestinal, ear nose & throat, and vascular surgery patients. We are also a major regional trauma unit. Medical care is provided to general medical, respiratory, haematology, oncology, neurology, toxicology & renal patients.
We look after most children (around 200 per year) but refer the very young or very sick on to Starship Hospital in Auckland, New Zealand's quaternary paediatric Intensive Care Unit.
We don't look after patients with burns, or spinal injuries but are involved in transferring them to the national specialist centres that do.
Mō Mātou
Who we are
We employ around 300 staff to provide tertiary critical care support for the region. We have a large multidisciplinary team with a flat hierarchy. Although overall clinical decisions are the responsibility of the senior medical staff, the team works closely with other hospital specialists. You can find out more about our staff below.
DOCTORS
We have 16 ICU specialists supervising more than 25 medical trainees and a number of Fellow positions. We are a major international ICU training & research centre
ALLIED HEALTH
Physiotherapists, dieticians, pharmacists, speech & language therapists, psychologists, whānau care, and social workers all help support patients during their ICU admission
NURSES
Almost 200 nurses provide care at the bedside, as educators, technicians and research nurses, in the air as part of our retrieval service, and across the hospital as part of the Patient At Risk team
NON-CLINICAL
Ward administrators, secretaries, volunteers and IT specialists support both staff and patients and ensure the unit runs smoothly
Location
Level 3
Wellington Regional Hospital
Riddiford Street
Newtown, Wellington
New Zealand