Queen’s Hospital is the main neurosurgical referral centre for North East London and Essex. We have a helicopter landing pad, and accept neuro trauma patients from Essex, Kent and London Helicopter Emergency Medical Service.

Our neuro critical care department is a state-of-the-art 12 bed sub speciality intensive care unit staffed by six consultants, as part of a multi-disciplinary team with specialist neuro ITU nurses, physiotherapists, pharmacists, speech therapists and dieticians.

The unit admits both neurosurgical patients (e.g., head/spine injuries and post elective neurosurgery) and neurology patients (e.g. Guillian Barre syndrome, Myaesthenia Gravis, Status Epilepticus, Acute Stroke and Encephalitis).

A daily consultant intensivist led ward round is the focus for patient management discussions and clinical decision making. In addition, daily review of patients by a consultant microbiologist provides high quality advice as well as promoting excellent standards of infection control.

Support by colleagues in neurosurgery, neuroradiology and neurophysiology ensures rapid access to diagnostic opinion and intervention. There is also access to a variety of specialist non-neuroscience opinions from colleagues throughout the rest of the hospital.

We are an elite training centre for specialist neuro anaesthesia and neuro critical care training in London. The high-quality training that we delivery means we are one of the most popular training centres in London for junior doctors. The unit also provides training for non specialist neuro nurses within the region.

The neuro critical care specialises in advanced monitoring of the brain using techniques such as intra cranial pressure, transcranial doppler, brain tissue oxygen monitoring and pressure reactivity Index. This enables us to deliver the most modern and highest quality care.

Our unit participates in multi centre and single centre research trials, to try and improve understanding of critically ill patients with brain dysfunction. We recently took part in the RAIN study (Risk Adjustment in Neurocritical Care). 

We are one of the few hospitals in the country which follow the guidelines recommended by National Institute of Clinical Excellence for a sub speciality ITU follow up clinic. This is run by Dr De La Cerda, to identify and solve any outstanding problems from your stay.

Key staff

Consultant Neuro Anaesthesia: Dr Sanjay Wijayatilake 
Consultant in Anaesthesia and Neuro Intensive Care: Dr Rajesh Jain 
Consultant in Anaesthesia and Neuro Intensive Care: Dr Raj Shetty
Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine (General and Neuro): Dr Gonzalo de la Cerda 
Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine (General and Neuro): Dr Antonio Bellini