Intensive care in the Belfast city hospital. The first two years-an audit.

THE Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in the Belfast City Hospital was opened on 1st September, 1978. The object of this paper is to present an audit of the first two years work. The ICU is a four-bedded unit which was intended to provide support for the needs of the acute services of the South Belfast Group. The main hospitals are the Belfast City Hospital (1116 beds) and the Musgrave Park Hospital (700 beds). A breakdown of the bed complements is shown in Table 1. It can be seen that there are a total of 600 beds providing acute medical, surgical and gynaecological care. Patients requiring specialised investigations or surgical intervention for cardio-thoracic or neurosurgical problems are referred directly or indirectly to the Respiratory Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital.