The ‘Star Trek Unit’: A History of Critical Care (online)
21 Jan 2027, 17:30 - 19:00
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Sharon Whiting explores the work of nurses in the ‘Star Trek Unit’ (as it became known) opened in 1967 at North Manchester General Hospital.
During the 1960s, the British Ministry of Health encouraged NHS hospitals to open general adult critical care units. Consequently, several early adopting hospitals grouped their sickest patients and a handful of life-saving medical devices with a few keen doctors and a select band of qualified nurses inside ‘new’ care spaces.
Whilst commonly being ‘nook and cranny’ places with an often jerry-built construction, they became locations where experimental practices enabled new fields of nursing and medicine to develop in parallel, pioneering advances that shaped future adult critical care services in the NHS.
In this talk, Sharon Whiting explores the work of nurses in the ‘Star Trek Unit’ (as it became known) at North Manchester General Hospital, a unit which opened in 1967.
Image: Nurse in ICU (David Morrison)
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Page last updated - 05/08/2026
