The Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at St Mary’s Hospital was opened by Dr Habibi in 1992 with just one bed. Since then it has grown into a busy 15 bed unit, saving the lives of children with life threatening diseases and suffering from acute trauma including:
- Toxic shock syndrome
- Meningitis
- Meningococcal septicaemia
- Pneumonia
- Inhaled foreign bodies
- Strangulation
- Severe croup
- Non-accidental injury
- Post-surgery care
St Mary’s PICU is the only unit of its kind in West London and around 20% of our patients come from the local area, admitted to us directly through our Children’s Accident and Emergency department.
Patients are also transferred to the PICU from Greater London, South East and the Home counties. In the busy winter period we can also take patients from East Anglia and the Midlands as demand for beds increases. This is due to its super speciality status, meaning it’s a service only available regionally and in a few hospitals in the country.
However, we also receive patients from all around the country due to the ward’s specialities. These critically ill children are retrieved using the CATS team, a mobile intensive care transport service, which COSMIC pioneered and developed and has subsequently been adopted throughout the UK.
All children admitted onto the Unit are critically ill or injured and need life support, treatment that could not be managed in a hospital without a PICU.
