Moving on
Recovering from an intensive care stay can be difficult, and the term post-intensive care syndrome (PICS) is used to describe the range of symptoms you might experience. Half of patients after critical illness are affected by PICS, and recovery can be supported by:
- your GP
- hospital specialists
- community teams
- family, friends
- possibly local and national organisations and charities.
At Guy's and St Thomas's hospital, a team of specialists from ICU run a weekly Post ICU recovery outpatient service for patients who have been cared for in one of the adults ICUs.
An appointment in the outpatient clinic is planned for around 8-12 weeks after returning home. This section will detail the Post-ICU recovery service at Guy's and St Thomas's and include links to all the support available locally and nationally.
The peer support groups for patients, carers and relatives can be extremely helpful during the recovery phase, and at Guy's and St Thomas's there is a peer support group led by our specialist post-ICU recovery nurse. Details can be found in the ‘Patient and relative (peer) support group at Guy's and St Thomas's’ article using the search bar below.