Guidelines for the Provision of Intensive Care Services (GPICS) 3rd edition now published
Today, the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine (FICM) and the Intensive Care Society (ICS) jointly publish the third edition of the Guidelines for the Provision of Intensive Care Services (GPICS), marking a decade of collaboration to define, deliver, and review standards and expectations in intensive care.
Focusing on infrastructure, people and processes, the latest edition of the Guidelines aims to bring greater clarity and accountability to intensive care services. By reviewing terminology and clearly establishing minimum care requirements, we aim to ensure patient needs are met through high-quality intensive care services.
Standards are now presented as ‘minimum standards’, outlined with single ‘must-do’ statements, and supported by a short ‘background and explanation’ section. This format improves auditability, consistency, ease of implementation, and supports a culture of continuous improvement.
Recommendations are explicitly framed as ‘should-do’ statements that define what best practice looks like and represent markers of excellence rather than minimum safety. They are hallmarks of what a high-quality intensive care service should look like and as such they can be used to drive improvement.
This new terminology is explicitly designed to align with the regulatory frameworks such as the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the Health Care Inspectorate (HCI) to ensure that regulators, commissioners, and clinicians are all speaking the same language when it comes to patient safety and service quality. An ICU that fails to meet the minimum safety standards should consider reporting to its organisational risk register, alerting hospital executives that the failing could lead to an ‘inadequate’ rating. Conversely, an ICU that provides ‘recommendations’ could be marked as a ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ service.
New to this edition is a chapter focused on sustainability, reflecting the recognition that intensive care must reduce its environmental impact while maintaining high standards of care. This edition also embeds equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) principles throughout, and is expanded upon in a new, dedicated chapter.
Another key distinction of this edition is the inclusion of patient and lay representatives in the development and editorial processes. Their input was invaluable in challenging assumptions, clarifying language, and focusing on compassion, communication, and the lived realities of patients and families navigating intensive care.
Jack Parry-Jones, Dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, says:
“The publication of these latest Guidelines for the Provision of Intensive Care Services marks an important step forward for our specialty. They reflect not only the best available evidence, but also the collective experience and dedication of multi-professional teams working in intensive care across the UK. Demands on critical care continue to evolve; these guidelines will help ensure that our collective aim of every patient receiving safe, consistent, high-quality intensive care is achievable and deliverable.
As the Faculty moves to becoming the College of Intensive Care Medicine in 2026, we welcome the release of these updated guidelines and are proud of the collaboration, rigour, and commitment that made them possible.”
Shondipon Laha, President of the Intensive Care Society, says:
“I am immensely proud that GPICS V3 is the first edition that has been shaped by patients and their loved ones working alongside our multi-professional community. At the Intensive Care Society, we believe that the patient voice is the very heart of why we do what we do. By embedding their lived experience into the GPICS Editorial Board, we have ensured these standards go beyond mere clinical metrics to focus on compassion, communication, and human-centred care.
“Whether you are a nurse, a doctor, an AHP, or a pharmacist, these standards are your tool to demand the resources and safety you deserve. We are wholly committed to supporting the entire ICU team as they work strenuously to provide the highest standard of care. This latest edition offers the practical, clear framework we need to continue delivering life-saving care together, as a unified community.”
The two co-lead editors, Dale Gardiner (FICM) and Paul Dean (ICS), say:
“The work of reviewing this latest edition has involved so many – clinicians of course, but also patients, families and our diverse networks across our respective organisations, which has meant we have enshrined in the Guidelines the voices of the broad intensive care community, making it all the more relevant and effective. These Guidelines are by and for all of us and have the potential to help us all improve what we do daily for our communities.”
