The number of admissions to hospital intensive care wards has increased by almost a third in the last 10 years, figures today revealed.
Statistics showed that 10,453 cases where patients were treated in intensive care in 2007, compared to 7,895 in 1998.
As well as the 32% increase in admissions to intensive care units (ICUs), there has also been a rise for high dependency units (HDUs).
This has gone from 17,185 in 2005 to 18,157 in 2007.
That means there were a total of 28,610 cases where patients were admitted to critical care wards last year.
However the Scottish Intensive Care Society Audit Report pointed out that the increase is partly due to new units taking part in the audit.
Average occupancy rates for critical care wards are 74% - a rate which has remained stable for the last three years.
And while admissions to ICU have increased by 32% over the last 10 years, the average length of time a patient stays in these wards has fallen by about 10% over the same period, and is now less than five days.
The figures showed that 40% of ICU admissions and 29% of HDU admissions took place between 8pm and 8am, while 22% of ICU admissions and 19% of HDU admissions occurred at weekends.
There has also been a steady increase in the number of patients admitted to intensive care straight from hospital emergency departments, with this rising from around 1,000 in 1998 to more than 2,000 in 2007.
Patients coming from the operating theatre are the most common source of admissions to ICUs.
Almost 44% of HDU admissions are from theatre, while about 25% are from other hospital wards and around 17% are from the emergency department.
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