Intensive care

Intensive care is provided to patients who are critically unwell and require complex, multisystem life support such as mechanical ventilation, extracorporeal renal support, and invasive cardiovascular monitoring. This section presents information on this care.

Public hospitals that have either an approved level 3 adult Intensive Care Unit (ICU) or an approved paediatric and/or neonatal ICU report the number of hours spent in an ICU for each hospitalisation and the number of continuous hours of ventilatory support provided, either within ICU, or in another location such as an emergency department. 

Hospitalisations involving intensive care

In 2024–25, 13.4 million hours of care in level 3 ICUs were reported for 156,000 hospitalisations. 

In public hospitals in 2024–25: 

• for every 1,000 hospitalisations, 14.4 involved a stay in a level 3 ICU
• 94 hospitals provided ICU care across 110,000 hospitalisations – this care involved 11.2 million hours, or 467,000 patient days, of care
• the average duration of stay in ICU was 102.0 hours (4.2 days).

From 2023–24 to 2024–25, hospitalisations involving a stay in an ICU increased by 2.8%, from 107,000 to 110,000, and the average duration of stay in an ICU increased by 1.4 hours, from 100.6 hours to 102.0 hours.

In private hospitals in 2024–25: 

• for every 1,000 hospitalisations, 9.0 involved a stay in a level 3 ICU
• ICU care was provided in 46,000 hospitalisations – this care involved 2.2 million hours, or 89,900 patient days, of care
• the average duration of stay in ICU was 85.7 hours per hospitalisation (3.6 days).

From 2023–24 to 2024–25, hospitalisations involving a stay in ICU decreased by 5.3%, from 48,600 to 46,000, and the average duration of stay in ICU increased by 0.2 hours, from 46.7 hours to 46.9 hours

Hospitalisations involving continuous ventilatory support

Continuous ventilatory support (CVS) refers to the use of invasive ventilatory support or mechanical ventilation (a machine to assist breathing). In 2024–25, 4.7 million hours of CVS were reported for 45,600 hospitalisations in Australian hospitals.

In public hospitals in 2024–25: 

• 4.4 million hours (184,000 patient days) of CVS was provided for 38,600 hospitalisations
• 5.0 hospitalisations per 1,000 involved CVS, and the average duration of CVS was 114.6 hours per hospitalisation (4.8 days).

From 2023–24 to 2024–25, the number of hospitalisations involving CVS increased by 0.8%, from 38,900 to 38,600, and the proportion of separations that involved CVS decreased from 5.2 per 1,000 separations to 5.0 per 1,000 separations.

In private hospitals in 2024–25:

• 315,000 hours (13,100 patient days) of CVS was provided in 7,000 hospitalisations
• for every 1,000 hospitalisations, 1.4 hospitalisations involved CVS, and the average duration of CVS was 45.1 hours per hospitalisation (1.9 days).

From 2023–24 to 2024–25, the number of hospitalisations involving CVS decreased by 8.1%, from 7,600 to 7,000, and the proportion of separations that involved CVS decreased from 1.5 per 1,000 separations to 1.4 per 1,000 separations.

Overlap between ICU care and CVS

When required, CVS is usually, but not always, done in an intensive care setting.

In 2024–25, 156,000 hospitalisations reported a stay in an ICU and of these, 37,800 (24%) reported a period of CVS:

• 29% hospitalisations in public hospitals reporting a stay in ICU also reported a period of CVS
• 12% of hospitalisations in private hospitals reporting a stay in ICU also reported a period of CVS.

A period of CVS was reported for 7,800 hospitalisations that did not involve a stay in ICU.