Patients & Relatives Section

 A bed in intensive care is only given to those in the most serious condition and the work undertaken by the staff in those units makes a critical difference to the chances a patient has of surviving. To this end, severe steps are often required to save the patient. Many of these are invasive and unpleasant but all are necessary.

This section of the website aims to provide information for patients and relatives in a way that is helpful, concise and relevant to each step of a patient's treatment and recovery from critical illness.

About Critical Care is an area that provides an introduction to the world of intensive care medicine and what may happen there.

Visiting the ICU covers the different aspects of what visitors to an intensive care unit will encounter including equipment, staff, the patient they're visiting and how as visitors they can help.

Transfer to the ward covers the step in a patient's recovery where they are well enough to be transferred from the intensive care unit to a general medical or surgical ward. Though this is a positive step in a patient's recovery, the changes involved can be difficult for both patient and relatives to cope with but knowing what happens can help.

Discharge from hospital covers the next stage of a patient's recovery when they're able to leave the hospital and return home.

On returning home a patient who has been critically ill will not yet be completely better and the rehabilitation section covers the different aspects of rehabilitation that a patient may need to go through in order to reach a full recovery.

Though this guide attempts to minimise the use of technical jargon, by its very nature critical care medicine is a very technical area and the glossary tries to provide a comprehensive listing of the terms or abbreviations you may hear in an ICU and explain what they mean.

The Patient and Relatives committee as well as being responsible for the content in this section of the website, represent patient interests on behalf of the ICS in a number of areas and is active in promoting and considering the patients' perspective on critical care matters. If you would like to know more about the Patients and Relatives Committee work or have a topic you think we should be aware of, you can do so through the Patient and Relatives committee page.

In the further information section, you will find links to documents and other websites which may be relevant to patients and relatives of the critically ill.

Whilst this website will hopefully provide answers to many of your questions, it is intended as additional support and information. A member of the critical care team caring for your relative will be more than happy to discuss any questions or concerns with you and will be able to provide information about your individual situation.