Information for Paediatricians
The majority of children being transferred to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit will have their management co-ordinated by the consultant paediatrician in the referring hospital, although clearly will involve usually the anaesthetic team and occasionally the A & E team, or general surgical teams.
Referral pathways
The links below show referral guidelines which have been developed by Health Commission Wales.
Meningococcal sepsis
Respiratory failure
Sedation withdrawal.
Many of our patients who require prolonged ventilation, inevitably require large doses of sedative drugs to enable them to tolerate their endotracheal tube and other procedures required during the PICU stay. A significant proportion of these patients, will develop symptoms of drug withdrawal after their discharge from PICU. We do our best to optimise sedation to avoid the problem, but where it is apparent it is likely to occur, we will discharge patients on a weaning regime of sedation. The link below shows the weaning protocol that we commonly use.
Sedation withdrawal management
Would you like to work in PICU?
If you are an SHO or Registrar in Paediatrics and would be interested in obtaining some PICU experience, please email Dr Helen Fardy, Lead Clinician. Most of our middle grade staff are specialist registrars either on the paediatric or anaesthetic rotation for Wales, but we also have some stand alone slots which are particularly suited to senior SHOs in either anaesthetics or paediatrics, who are in the process of seeking NTNs in their parent specialty.
