Intensive Care at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital

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Directorate of Intensive Therapy

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The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) [photo] is situated on the 1st floor of the Hospital, XYZ side. It moved into its present accommodation in 1992.

It is a separate Clinical Directorate with an annual budget of about £7M (€10M) within the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, an acute teaching hospital with an annual budget of over £320M (€460M), close to Liverpool City centre.

               Contacting us

• Telephone:

ICU Secretaries: Lynne Wilcock and Gillian Chantre: 0151 706 3191 or 0151 706 3853

Either can be e-mailed with the format: firstname.surname@rlbuht.nhs.uk

The ICU direct line: 0151 706 2400

• Fax: 0151 706 5853 or 0151 706 5646

[If calling from overseas dial: + 44 151 706 XXXX]

• Postal address:

Department of Intensive Care, 12th Floor, Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Prescot Street, LIVERPOOL, L7 8XP

• How to find us:  area map     site map

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Medical Staff

The Clinical Director of Intensive Care:

• Dr Lawrence McCrossan (Critical Care Outreach Lead)

The other Consultant Intensivist Staff are:

• Dr Andrew Axon (Education Lead)  

• Dr Arpan Guha (Equipment Lead)

• Dr S Jane Harper (Member of ICS Council; ) (Bronze Clinical Excellence Award holder) [photo]

• Dr Gary R Masterson (Cheshire & Mersey Critical Care Network Joint Medical Lead) (ICNARC Lead) (Bronze Clinical Excellence Award holder) [photo]

• Dr Jonathan Walker (Audit Lead)

• Dr Ingeborg DM Welters (Senior Lecturer, Dept. Anaesthesia, University of Liverpool)

• Dr Richard Wenstone (ICS Linkman, Mortality & Morbidity Lead, Critical Incident Lead; AMICU Treasurer) [photo]

Staff can be e-mailed with the format: firstname.surname@rlbuht.nhs.uk

The consultant staff are supported by a Clinical Fellow (a 12 month post), currently Dr. Elizabeth Flockton, and other trainees who operate on a shift system designed to produce an average working week of 48 hours:

Senior House Officer (SHO) and Specialist Registrar (SpR) trainees are seconded from The Department of Anaesthesia. We also train about five "FY2" (Foundation Year 2) SHOs.

Under the Working Time Directive*, trainees are allowed to work a maximum shift duration of 13 hours and must have a minimum of 11 hours free in every 24 hours. Trainee Rota shifts are 08.00 - 21.00 and 20.00 - 09.00 hrs, with handover ward rounds at 08.00 and 20.00 hrs. 

The consultant to consultant handover ward rounds, where necessary, are at 08.00 and 17.00 hrs.

The Department of Anaesthesia's medical staff manage the Hospital's Post-operative Critical Care Unit (POCCU).

Occasionally supernumerary trainees from The Department of Accident & Emergency Medicine and also The Liverpool Women's Hospital (trainees in gynaecological oncology or feto-maternal medicine) are seconded to the ICU.

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About the ICU

• A "closed" unit providing a range of acute respiratory and renal support modalities for the population of Merseyside and beyond.

• Number of admissions (2007): 496 (78% were ventilated and 17% had renal replacement therapy)

• Number of beds: 13 (all funded); occupancy (2007) 93%

• Mean APACHE II score (2007): 18

• Formal consultant intensivist ward rounds take place twice daily at 0800 hr (0900 hr at weekends) and again at 1700 or 2000 hr.

• Tutorials for trainees take place Tuesday mornings and Educational meetings are held every Friday lunchtime. There are also regular multi-disciplinary audit or ethics meetings.

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Research, Development and Audit

• For information on research nurses please contact Ann Strong or Angie Wright. Staff can be e-mailed with the format: firstname.surname@rlbuht.nhs.uk

• This Unit was one of the sites for phases 2 and 3 of the Glaxo Wellcome study of L-NMMA in septic shock and their study of remifentanil in ventilated patients. We were also a site for the Transcend multi-centre study of glutathione in acute lung injury and multi-centre work with other nearby ICU's looking at the role of a re-formulated fluconazole. We were one of the centres involved in the recently terminated Leo Pharma  study of porcine surfactant in acute lung injury [further information from RW]. We were enrolled into the recently completed GSK phase II LIPOS study.

• We were involved in the ("CESAR") multi-centre study of ECMO and were one of the phase III centres involved in the study of activated protein C in sepsis. We also took part in the recently completed multi-centre study of Mycograb, a novel therapy in candidiasis [further information from GRM].

• We have active research interests in HLA-DR expression, GM-CSF and selenium supplementation in sepsis in co-operation with the University of Liverpool's Departments of Immunology and Chemical Pathology [further information from RW]. There is also close liaison with the Department of Chemical Pathology with a particular interest in cytokines and micro-nutrients.

• The Unit has been using, since 1996, inhaled nitric oxide therapy for patients with acute lung injury. Typically we use NO where prone ventilation has not been helpful or possible [further information from RW].

• Other projects underway, planned or recently completed include:

• an evaluation of sensitivity of noninvasive determinants for capillary leakage syndrome in septic patients. 

• work on failure to wean critically ill patients from mechanical ventilation due to constipation [Presented in 2000 at the Rome meeting of ESICM and published in Br. J. Anaes] [further information from RW];

• the role of acupuncture as a sedative in the ventilated patient [further information from RW];

• Using APTT waveform analysis as an early predictor of outcome in critically ill patients, in co-operation with University of Liverpool's Department of Haematology. Part of this work has already been presented at international meetings and published in haematology and critical care journals. Continuation of this work has attracted an MRC grant [further information from RW or IW];

• the role of NSE and S-100 in predicting functional outcome after cerebral injury, [Presented in 2002 at the Barcelona meetings of ESICM] [further information from RW];

• We have also carried out a prospective study for estimation of cardiac responsiveness to fluid administration using stroke volume variation in mechanically ventilated patients with severe sepsis. [Presented in 2002 at the Barcelona meeting of ESICM];

• changes in fat metabolism during critical illness including the effect of body weight, in sepsis, on the production of adipokines, glucose metabolism and outcome [further info from IW];

• Use of BIS monitoring during percutaneous tracheostomy [further info from EF];

• Validation of the Charleson Score in a critical care population [further info from AG].

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• Some of the teaching materials used by our nursing staff to teach colleagues about Swan-Ganz catheters and the PiCCO can be found here.

• We have a developing Critical Care Outreach Team (CCOT) [photo], in line with Comprehensive Critical Care.

• Our CCOT comprises senior nurses, consultant intensivists, senior operating department practitioners (David Brown [photo] and John Murphy) and a physiotherapist (Laura Vincent). 

• Our Nurse CCOT Leads are Karen Francis and Elizabeth Arthan; the Medical Lead is Dr Lawrence McCrossan and the CCOT educator is Andrea Fazakerley.

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Other Staff

As well as Medical, Nursing, Physiotherapy and Medical Engineering Staff, the Unit is complemented by two specialised technicians (Operating Department Practitioners), David Brown [photo] and John Murphy.

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Education and Training

• The Regional Advisor in Intensive Care is Dr. Euan Shearer, Consultant in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, University Hospital Aintree, Liverpool.

Dr. Shearer can provide further information about the Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training (CCST) in Intensive Care Medicine, as advised by the Intercollegiate Board for Training in Intensive Care Medicine (IBTICM). Further information is also available from the Intensive Care Society.

• See also the Education, Training and Continuing Professional Development section of AMICU's web site.

• Some of our nursing teaching materials about Swan-Ganz catheters and the PiCCO can be found here.

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About Critical Care in our local area:

• For further information about Intensive Care in the Cheshire & Mersey area, follow the links to the Association of Mersey Intensive Care Units, A.M.I.C.U. (A link to the Cheshire and Mersey Critical Care Network's own web site can be found here.)

• AMICU also acts as our Local Network in accordance with The Department of Health's Comprehensive Critical Care document which was published in May 2000.

• Our Transfer Related Group includes University Hospital Aintree and Whiston Hospital.

• The Intensive Care Unit is one of over 30 ICUs in the North West of England which take part in the Intensive Care Bed Information Service, I.C.B.I.S.

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Page last updated: Sunday, 30 March 2008

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