Beyond Survival: Turning NCEPOD Rehabilitation Recommendations into Reality

Professor David McWilliams

Professor of Critical Care and Rehabilitation , Centre for Care Excellence, University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust

David McWilliams is a Professor of Critical Care and Rehabilitation and Clinical Academic Physiotherapist at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust and Coventry University's Centre for Care Excellence. He is the chair of the physiotherapy working group for the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine, and Chair of the Intensive Care Society National Rehabilitation Collaborative. David was a member of the guideline development group for the NICE guideline ‘Critical Illness rehabilitation’ and led an NCEPOD study into rehabilitation and recovery following critical illness. David is recognised as an international expert on critical care physiotherapy and rehabilitation, regularly presenting both nationally and internationally on the subject.

: @Davido744

Dr Pam Page

Registered Nurse, ICU Steps

I am a registered nurse with 40 years’ experience in both clinical critical care and critical care education. I am passionate about improving quality of life during and post critical illness for ICU survivors and their families. 

My doctoral work (2012-2016) revealed that many ICU survivors have little recall of the factual events of their critical illness, but relatives have lived the whole event in a very real and ingraining manner. This can result in family members and survivors experiencing very different versions of the critical illness episode. As a Churchill Fellow (2019) I have been able to visit ICUs in the USA, Australia and New Zealand to witness best practice in ICU survivorship in support of critical illness survivorship here in the UK. 

My day job is deputy director of NMC reviews, working on behalf of the Nursing and Midwifery Council; providing quality assurance to nursing and midwifery programmes across the UK.

Kate Tantam

Specialist Intensive Care Sister, UK

Kate is a Specialist Sister in ICU in Plymouth.  Her role is to support patients, loved ones and staff pre and post ICU discharge.  She is a nurse researcher in rehabilitation after critical illness and the founder of the #Rehablegend campaign. The campaign shares patient stories to share best practice, improve patient experience, support quality improvement and clinical research and raise awareness of the importance of rehabilitation for all.  Her work was recognised with a Parliamentary Award for care and compassion in 2019, National Patient Experience Award in 2019.  Her work during 2020/2021 supporting patients with COVID saw her awarded with a British Empire Medal for services to improve patient experience.  She is the deputy chair of the National Rehabilitation Collaborative and is keen to develop national work to support recovery after ICU.

: @tantamkate

Zoe Van Willigen

Critical Care Physiotherapist

Zoe van Willigen is a Critical Care Physiotherapist with almost twenty years’ experience in the speciality. She has led the Early Mobilisation Project on intensive care (ICU) in Southampton since 2012, which is estimated to have saved her NHS trust over £2.5million. Zoe has conducted and published research into the family and patient experience of rehabilitation on ICU, leading to a number of pilot projects to address the provision of services throughout the ICU recovery pathway. Zoe is chair of the Thames Valley and Wessex Critical Care Network’s rehabilitation group and has also recently been employed by ICUSteps to lead national online rehabilitation classes for former ICU patients. Zoe holds one of only 10 physiotherapy professional advisory group seats for the Intensive Care Society and is also on the specialist advisory group for the current NCEPOD trial into rehabilitation after critical illness.

Nicola Williams

Physiotherapist, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals

Nicky is a Physiotherapist and works on the critical care unit at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals.  She is a Critical Care Physiotherapy Practitioner and is the Rehabilitation & Follow Up Lead.  Her role includes early rehabilitation and weaning on critical care.  As a rehabilitation co-ordinator she follows patients up on the ward and once they are discharged from hospital.  She co-ordinates the Follow Up Service and is part of the complex follow up clinic.  She is an advocate for promoting rehabilitation during all stages of critical illness recovery and is involved in the education of health care professionals at a trust, network and post graduate levels.

Nicky is interested in early mobilisation, currently involved in the FRECycl-D trial, and to learn from patients how to improve services.

Nicky has recently stepped down from the role of co-chair of the National Network Critical Care AHP group, during this time she had the opportunity to be part of the group developing the guidance for the Network Peer Review of Rehabilitation.  She is the Lancashire & South Cumbria Critical Care Network AHP Lead.