Te Puna Wai Ora — Southern critical care

You can contact Te Puna Wai Ora by:

• phone 03 474 0999
• email contactus@southerndhb.govt.nz

Street address

201 Great King Street
Dunedin

Postal address

Te Puna Wai Ora — Southern critical care
Private Bag 1921
Dunedin 9054
New Zealand

Critical care is the specialist care given to patients with acute (sudden), potentially reversible, life-threatening diseases. This may include patients who have life-threatening conditions such as a major accident, a severe infection or those recovering from a major operation.

Critical care is split into 2 units:

• Intensive care unit (ICU) — where the sickest patients are cared for
• High dependency unit (HDU) — where patients who are not well enough to return to general wards are treated.

In some hospitals coronary care patients and other high care areas may be combined within a critical care area.

What to expect for patients in Te Puna Wai Ora

We continuously monitor the progress of a disease and the body's response to complex treatments. This allows timely adjustment of treatments. Some of the monitoring we do includes:

• blood tests
• heart rate
• arterial blood pressure
• central venous pressure
• oxygen saturation
• urine output.

Specific conditions may require other investigations. The changes are monitored and therapy adjusted as a result of the monitoring.

In some situations, we may need to perform complex procedures that can take a long time and require the unit to be closed to visitors.

Te Puna Wai Ora is staffed by a highly experienced and professional doctors and nurses, and are supported by other healthcare professionals when needed.

More information

Full details of Te Puna Wai Ora services and contact details are on our website.

Te Puna Wai Ora (external link)

You will be admitted to Te Puna Wai Ora if the level of your care needs it.