Critical care staff in Cornwall launch new tools to support patients on path to recovery

A team from Royal Cornwall Hospital have helped create a new information gateway to support people transition out of critical care.

Dr William English, a Critical Care Consultant, and Sarah Bean, a Critical Care Research Nurse, recognised the need for greater support for patients recovering from serious illness during their follow-up clinics.

To help, they created a collection of short films containing guidance and advice on recovery from serious illness.

The Critical Care Information Gateway is now available for patients and their relatives to access.

In total there are 14 films covering topics such as hallucinations, stress and anxiety, stepping down to a ward, memory loss and physical recovery.

Dr English says there is a lot of common ground between any long stay patient and a Covid-19 patient, so launching the service now is more important than ever.

He added that, "another challenge is these patients are quite isolated, because unfortunately we’re not allowed to let their relatives come in so we want to be able to help the relatives understand what’s been going on in hospital so they can help their loved one piece together what their experience has been."

Sarah Bean says common topics kept cropping up again and again with conversations with critical care survivors.

The project was funded by donations from a number of patients treated at The Royal Cornwall Hospital, The Critical Care Unit Fund of Royal Cornwall Hospitals Charity, a Health Education England Innovation grant, The Duchy Hospital Charity, The Friends of Royal Cornwall Hospital and The Research and Development department at RCHT.

The information gateway can be accessed here: http://healthcarevideos.royalcornwall.nhs.uk/criticalcare