Breakout session
The Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine (FICM) and the Intensive Care Society (ICS) jointly published Guidelines for the Provision of Intensive Care Services (GPICS)-version 3 in January 2026, marking a decade of collaboration to define, deliver, and review standards and expectations in intensive care.
GPICS v3 represents the most comprehensive update to UK intensive care standards in a decade. This session introduces the new edition, highlights the strengthened expectations across infrastructure, workforce, and clinical processes, and formally launches the GPICS Audit Tool — the new national platform that will enable units, networks, and commissioners to measure compliance, benchmark performance, and drive improvement.
Learning Objectives:
Dr Paul Dean is a Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, where he has practised as a consultant intensivist since 2009. He is recognised nationally for his leadership in critical care standards, service development, and multidisciplinary workforce advancement.
Paul is the Honorary Treasurer of the Intensive Care Society and serves as Co‑Editor‑in‑Chief of GPICS v3, the UK’s definitive standard for the provision of intensive care services. He also holds a senior regional role as Medical Lead for the Lancashire & South Cumbria Critical Care Network, supporting system‑wide quality improvement, resilience planning, and service coordination.
His clinical background spans trauma, sepsis, retrieval medicine, and patient safety, and he has contributed extensively to national guidance, governance frameworks, and professional standards across the critical care community.
Paul brings to this session a combination of front‑line clinical expertise and national standards leadership, shaping how GPICS v3 will influence the future of UK intensive care.
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Dr Dale Gardiner is a Consultant in Adult Intensive Care Medicine at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and the Associate Medical Director – Deceased Organ Donation at NHS Blood and Transplant.
His professional interests are medical ethics, the diagnosis of death and deceased organ donation.
Dale is a Board Member of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine and Chair of the Professional Affairs and Safety Committee. He is co-chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges task and finish group to update the 2008 Code of Practice for the Diagnosis and Confirmation of Death.
Originally, Dale came from Australia but migrated to the UK in 2002.
Dr Sam Clark is a Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine (ICM) and Clinical Lead for Critical Care Services at Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Alongside ICM, he has a specialist interest in Palliative Medicine and works regularly within Specialist Palliative Medicine services at his Trust.
Sam has contributed to the development of clinical, end of life, and sustainability guidance over a number of years through the Intensive Care Society, and is currently an elected member of the Consultant Intensivist Professional Advisory Group and the Society’s Environment and Sustainability Working Group.
He developed and led the implementation and spread of the ICS “Gloves Off” campaign to support sustainable practice in Critical Care. He has also worked collaboratively with UK colleagues and the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society to develop the Beginner’s Guide to Sustainability in the ICU, and was an author of the newly added sustainability chapter in GPICS Version 3.
