Demand on Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at Noah's Ark Children's Hospital for Wales

1 December 2022

Across the UK there are significant demands on Childrens Intensive Care Services, and as a consequence Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is experiencing bed pressures within its Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). This is due to rising numbers of viral respiratory illnesses amongst children resulting in a surge in numbers of children requiring treatment within critical care.

To ensure our sickest patients are receiving appropriate safe care, our clinical teams will need to make some difficult decisions in the coming weeks which may include the cancellation of elective surgery and the transfer of critically ill children to other units in the UK.

Our teams are doing everything they can to maintain capacity but prioritising safety for the most unwell children within the Children’s Hospital for Wales is paramount. We may need to cancel more procedures than we would like in order to continue to treat all unwell children that need critical care support at this time. All decisions will be made on an individual clinical basis and we apologise for any anxiety patients and their families may experience if their treatment is postponed.

Unfortunately, this situation is not unique to Wales and all PICUs across the UK are experiencing a high demand coupled with workforce challenges.

We want to reassure patients and their families that our teams are working tirelessly to provide safe and effective care to our patients and these decisions will be reviewed on a weekly basis to monitor capacity.

We appreciate your understanding during this challenging period.