Tuyển tập các báo cáo nghiên cứu về y học được đăng trên tạp chí y học General Psychiatry cung cấp cho các bạn kiến thức về ngành y đề tài: ICUs worldwide: An overview of critical care medicine in South Africa. | Critical Care February 2002 Vol 6 No 1 Mathivha Commentary ICUs worldwide An overview of critical care medicine in South Africa L Rudo Mathivha Director of Intensive Care Unit Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital University of the Witwatersrand Soweto Johannesburg South Africa Correspondence L Rudo Mathivha 072mathi@ Published online 11 January 2002 Critical Care 2002 6 22-23 2002 BioMed Central Ltd Print ISSN 1364-8535 Online ISSN 1466-609X Abstract South Africa has undergone rapid changes in the political and social arenas since 1994. With new policy-makers in the Department of Health the distribution of health care resources are being rationalised and redirected to benefit the majority of the previously disadvantaged population of the country. The role and rationalisation of intensive care medicine has to be re-evaluated to ascertain that it is at a level appropriate for a developing country. Despite progress made the subspecialty of intensive care medicine faces challenges from changing disease patterns and from lack of human and financial resources as these are redirected to primary health care and other priorities facing the country. Keywords critical care intensive care intensive care units In South Africa critical care medicine began in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was initiated by enthusiastic individuals from an anaesthesiology background. In the early 1980s a more formal approach was taken beginning with the establishment of the Critical Care Society of South Africa. This society constituted members of the medical and nursing care professions. The Critical Care Society of South Africa set out guidelines for the establishment of proper intensive care units ICUs for the care of the critically ill. The structure of the facilities established was largely modelled on those that exist in Australia the USA and Europe 1 . Organisational structure South African ICUs are structured and graded according to the 1983 National Institutes of Health .
