Like Denmark, many European countries has only limited access to surgical intermediate care beds (high dependency beds). This may reflect lack of scientific evidence for the effect of intermediate care combined with restricted healthcare resources. Better access to dedicated postoperative intensive/intermediate care facilities has been suggested as a factor which potentially can reduce postoperative complication rate and mortality in high risk surgical patients. The Incare Trial will provide important data on the effect of postoperative intermediate care in emergency abdominal surgery patients.