We have a neuro-psychologist as part of our critical care team who is available to support both patients and relatives. If you feel you would like to access this support please let us know.
The pastoral care services at UCLH have faith leaders from a variety of religious backgrounds. If you would like a visit made to your loved one by a faith leader please let us know and we can arrange this for you.
This hospital also have volunteer services who offer a variety of services. These can include shopping for patients, patient massage, reading to patients. Availability is dependent on the volunteers available at the time but if you think your relative would benefit from these services please do speak to the bedside nurse and let them know.
Patients may be discharged from NCC to one of the wards within NHNN (before being either discharged home or back to their referring hospital) or discharged directly to the critical care unit at their referring hospital if appropriate care can be provided there.
Moving from NCC to a ward can be an anxious time for patients and their families and there may be concerns about the differences they find in the level of care. In critical care there is usually 1 trained nurse to 1-2 patients and on the ward there is 1 trained nurse for 6-8 patients.
Patients are only discharged to the ward once they have been assessed by the multidisciplinary team as no longer requiring the higher level of care provided on the critical care unit.
To provide continuity of care and support for patients and their families the Critical Care Outreach Team will follow up all patients discharged from critical care to the ward.
Critical Care Outreach Team
The critical care outreach team (CCOT) includes a senior nurse, an anaesthetic registrar and a critical care consultant. The team cover the hospital day and night. All patients who are discharged from critical care to the ward are viewed by CCOT and kept under their review until they are satisfied the patient has settled on the ward. The ward will also refer any patients they have concerns about to CCOT who will review and support the ward teams.
This service aims to provide support to those whose relative or loved one has died in critical care. We understand that it is often difficult to retain information during such a stressful time and we offer this service to allow you to ask any questions you may have.
The service is led by a critical care nurse and a critical care consultant. We can arrange for them to call you (prior to COVID-19 we would have had a face to face visit but this is not currently possible). It is helpful if you let us know beforehand if there are any particular questions or concerns you would like answered so we can ensure we have access to that information.
If you wish to arrange a call, please email at this address: uclh.
We are currently developing a follow up clinic for patients discharged from critical care. If you feel this is something that would be helpful for your relative to please email us on: uclh.