Society welcomes opportunity to present recommendations to improve the response of the healthcare system for future pandemics

The Intensive Care Society welcomes the opportunity to present recommendations to improve the response of the healthcare system for future pandemics

The Intensive Care Society has welcomed the opportunity to participate in Module 3 of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry with Society President Dr Steve Mathieu giving evidence on Wednesday 9 October 2024. The module considers the impact of the pandemic on healthcare systems, patients and healthcare workers in the four nations of the UK. We have been pleased to able to represent our members; the doctors, nurses, psychologists, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists, dietitians, pharmacists, occupational therapists, and all other allied healthcare professionals working in critical care.

The Covid-19 pandemic was the most challenging period in the Society’s history, both for the organisation, for its members and for all of those working in intensive care during that period.

We thank the Inquiry for the diligence with which they are conducting their investigation. We see this as an important  opportunity to tell the story of the multi professional team who delivered  intensive care during the pandemic, of the patients they cared for and the role the Society took in speaking for the ICU community and our critically ill patients.

What continues to be clear is that the impact on the intensive care sector and its people has been, and continues to be, devastating.

The pandemic was an incredibly uncertain time, and those working in intensive care were facing a multitude of challenges such as increased demand to treat the sickest patients, a lack of experienced and trained intensive care staff and beds, a lack of PPE, and the concerns around protecting themselves and their own families at home. The Society was acutely aware of the stressful impact that this would have on our members, and we felt and continue to feel passionate about providing as much support and guidance to assist as possible.

The Society has given much thought to how the healthcare system needs to be improved to respond to a future pandemic.

In speaking to the Inquiry, Dr Steve Mathieu, President of the Society has highlighted a number of key recommendations which include:

• Investing in retaining the skilled staff already delivering intensive care in the UK. It takes many years to educate, train and build up these skills. Retention is step one to safeguarding services now and for a future pandemic. Alongside this investing in training to ‘replenish’ ICU staffing to an appropriate level and standard. With experienced staff choosing or feeling compelled to leave critical care, and with the gap in training caused by the pandemic, there is a dilution of experience and there are gaps that need to be filled
• Increasing ICU bed capacity across ICUs to at least the average seen across the EU nations. The UK was at a significant disadvantage at the outset of the pandemic due to a lack of suitable beds (and staff ).
• Making sure hospitals are pandemic ready with easily accessible and understandable data on oxygen and hospital schematics
• Maintaining and growing clinical academia. The Society believes that one of the reasons that the UK managed the pandemic better than some of its Global counterparts is because of the access it had to embedded clinical academia and research talent. Clinical academia in the UK is in decline and the Society fears that if there is not investment in that now, future pandemics may not have the expertise that we had to lean on.
• Developing a formal psychological support programme for staff that involves employing psychologists within ICUs so they can provide proactive rather than reactive support to help staff to thrive at work and prepare them for another pandemic.

Speaking after his attendance at the Inquiry Dr Mathieu said:

“The incredible effort of all the staff who worked in and support intensive care made a significant contribution to our country making it through the pandemic as we did. At the same time, we must never forget the cost in lives lost, health damaged and the long-term impact on our health care system and our society.

“There is significant work to be done to upskill staff and to return staffing levels to better than pre-pandemic levels in order that critical care can survive another pandemic.

“It is vital that we all learn the many lessons from the pandemic. I trust that by our contribution to the Inquiry the Society has been able to reflect how best the UK can be better prepared, and that intensive care has greater resilience for the future “

Our full recommendations can be found in our written evidence which has now been published by the Inquiry and can be found here.

The Intensive Care Society is a small charity though we have big ambitions to continue to develop intensive care and to support our beneficiaries – patients, relatives and the multi-professional critical care team. Through our charitable donations in 2020 we were able to step up and meet the needs of the community including a significant investment in the wellbeing of ICU staff. To meet the evolving needs of our community, we need your ongoing support, and your donation will really make a difference.

ENDS