Our Team

A large number of staff are involved in the care of our patients. Explore each of these team members using the buttons below.

The Critical Care medical team co-ordinates and manages the overall care of patients in the Unit. The medical team is made up of:

Consultants - Intensive Care specialists, also called 'intensivists'. There may be a different on-call Consultant each day.

Fellows - Fellows are experienced doctors who are typically at the end of their specialty training, and who are gaining further skills and experience prior to taking up a consultant post.

Registrars - are qualified doctors training in Critical Care Medicine or a related specialty

Senior house officers - doctors experienced in hospital medicine who have not yet started specialty training

The medical team is responsible for major decision making and co-ordination of care. They perform ward rounds on patients three times a day (morning, afternoon and evening) and are available in-between times for any elements of care and treatment that require a doctor.

ICU Doctors

All patients in hospital (including those in ICU) are admitted under a specialty team who are experts in their medical issue.

This team is is responsible for their care while on the regular wards of the hospital (i.e. before and/or after their stay in ICU), and work collaboratively with the Critical Care team while patients are in Critical Care.

Examples of specialties

Medical:

Cardiology
General Medicine
Gastroenterology
Respiratory

Surgical:

General Surgery
Neurosurgery
Cardiothoracic
Trauma

Other:

Paediatrics (Medical or Surgical)
Obstetrics
Psychiatry

Other support services such as Anaesthesia and Radiology support the primary teams in caring for their patients.

Each specialty has a team of junior doctors who work with the specialists, and are responsible for day-to-day tasks and management. Many of these doctors are training in that specialty (registrars), and may be your main contact points while in hospital.

Specialty Doctors

Our Kaitiaki service offers cultural support for Māori and their whānau in hospital. The service is available during business hours.

Social workers provide information and support on any social issues affecting a patient and/or their loved ones – including legal issues, social and emotional issues and discharge planning. This service is available during business hours and occasionally on-call out of hours.

Kaitiaki & Social Work

Our critical care nurses are highly skilled in all practical aspects of the care of critically unwell patients. Critical Care patients are nursed 1:1 or 1:2, which means 1 nurse:1 patient, or 1 nurse to 2 patients. This ensures all patients are closely monitored and attended to.

They are responsible for administering medications, noting all vital signs and other variables about the patient’s status, and will alert the medical team of any changes or concerns.

Our nurses wear blue shirts – with student nurses in white shirts. Every shift there is at least one ‘charge’ nurse – wearing red, who co-ordinates the unit and supports all the nurses at the bed spaces.

Nurses

Our pharmacists work closely with our doctors to advise on the medications patients are prescribed to ensure maximum safety and benefit. They will also check a patient’s medication history and ensure all important regular medications are continued where appropriate, or that regular medications are withheld when they need to be.

You may have a pharmacist sit down with you to discuss what medications your family member normally takes.

Pharmacy

It is crucial for our patients to be well nourished, and our dieticians work closely with our doctors to ensure this. If Critical Care patients are unable to eat normally, they will usually be fed with via a tube into their stomach through their nose/mouth. Occasionally if a patient has an issue with their stomach or bowel, they may need to receive nutrition intravenously – called Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN).

Dietician

Our administrate staff work both at reception where they will interact with many of our patient’s whanau, and also behind the scenes ensuring the unit operates efficiently and in line with regional and national standards.

Research studies at crucial for ICU care to continue to improve. We are an active research unit and usually are involved in several trials. Our research team or our doctors may discuss these with you to gain your consent.