The Royal Adelaide Hospital ICU is one of the largest intensive care units in Australia.

It is a leader in intensive care management of critically ill patients as well as delivering award-winning research, innovation, education and training in critical care medicine.

We deliver world-class care to patients with life-threatening injuries and illnesses.

Patients may require admission to the ICU for any number of reasons, including close monitoring and treatment following: 

• trauma or presentation to the Emergency Department
• complex surgery (planned or emergency)
• deterioration in hospital and requiring a high level of care or intervention.

Our specialty areas include:

• major trauma
• complex and elective surgery
• burns
• advanced heart failure support, cardiac and vascular surgery
• complex spinal surgery
• traumatic brain injury.

The ICU is designed with a strong focus on natural light, situated next to landscaped gardens and courtyards, creating a healing environment for patients and their loved ones.

Visiting the ICU

The ICU is located at 4G, on level 4 of the RAH.

To find the ICU, go to level 3 (ground floor) of the RAH, go to G lifts, go to level 4 and follow the signs to ICU.

The ICU is a secure access clinical area, requiring one of our volunteers or clinical staff to escort you inside. 

The ICU reception provides a comfortable waiting area until ICU clinical staff can update you or bring you to the bedside of your loved one.

Visiting hours

The ICU is open to visitors daily at:

• 10am - 1pm
• 4pm - 7pm

We allow up to 2 visitors at the bedspace at any one time, to avoid overcrowding the busy clinical area.

Please request to speak to our clinical staff if our visiting requirements are prohibitive. 

Please note: flowers, plants and balloons are not permitted in the ICU.

We appreciate your understanding and that our visiting requirements may change, at short notice, under certain circumstances.

What to know when visiting a patient in the ICU

Visiting a critically ill loved one in the ICU can be a confronting and sometimes distressing experience.

The ICU is a highly technical and unfamiliar environment for many, with numerous machines, alarms, hospital staff, and a high volume of medical information to take in and understand.

We do our best to prepare visitors for their time in the ICU with their loved one, by talking to and updating families and friends as much as possible, and answering any questions you may have.

Find out more on Patients and carer information