A prospective study to assess the demand for a high dependency unit in a district general hospital according to National Health Service (NHS) guidelines

Abstract

We performed a prospective study in our District General Hospital to determine the demand for a high dependency unit (HDU) based on the guidelines on admission to anddischarge from Intensive Care and High Dependency Unitsissued by the National Health Service (NHS) Executive (Department of Health, March 1996). The main acute surgical and medical wards were surveyed for 20 days and the existing HDU beds and intensive care unit (ICU) (for patients in ICU but requiring HDU level of care) for 38 consecutive days. From the data obtained it was predicted that, on average, there were six patients meeting the NHS guidelines for HDU care each day in our hospital. The NHS guidelines are self explanatory and easy to use and may have a role in deciding when to admit and discharge patients from HDU. Addition of acid base disorders would increase their usefulness in predicting admission to HDU.