Newsroom
Former patients meet staff who saved them
The critical care team at West Suffolk Hospital recently held its 15th annual open evening for former patients. Every year, patients of the unit who have needed extra support from the team, are invited back to the hospital to meet some of the staff who cared for them and to meet each other and discuss their different experiences.
Only the very sickest patients are treated on a critical care unit and often patients are not conscious and are unaware at the time, of the staff who have cared for them. However, at West Suffolk Hospital, when a patient leaves critical care, that isn’t always the end of the service offered to them.
Janet Thomas, critical care follow-up sister, has spent the last 10 years working with the team to develop a comprehensive programme of rehabilitation and support for patients who have been through the critical care unit. This was her last open evening as she is now retiring, leaving a legacy of best practice behind her.
Janet said: “After a patient has been through an episode of critical illness with us, it can often take up to a year or longer for them to come to terms with their experience and return to some sort of normality; there are both physical and psychological consequences.
“Our patients can often battle fatigue, loss of strength, loss of appetite and weight loss, sleep problems and nightmares, depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder because of what they have been through.
“It can also be an overwhelming time for their loved ones, so it’s important to us that we support both the patient and their families during and after a period of critical care.
“My son and, more recently, my mother have had spells on our critical care unit, so more than ever I realised the importance of what we offer our patients and how distressing and confusing a time it can be when someone you love is so seriously ill.”
Some of the WSFT critical care team. From left to right: Carin Swanevelder , clinical lead for anaesthesia, Janet Thomas, critical care follow-up sister, Esther Rawlinson, critical care follow-up sister, Debra Baker, critical care ward manager and Suzahn Wilson, senior physiotherapist.
As well as introducing the annual critical care open evening, Janet was also instrumental in setting up a monthly coffee morning for critical care patients who want extra support and social interaction. A follow up clinic has been established since 2001 for patients who have been on the unit for four days or more and need further support. The service also provides a ‘FIT (Following Intensive Therapy) Group’, run by professional physiotherapists, to help re-strengthen patients after a period of serious ill health and to give them an opportunity to socialise with each other and regain confidence.
Shirley and Charlie McGowan attended the open evening to thank staff for looking after Shirley. She was in critical care in 2015 for 31 days, and then on ward F5 for approximately two weeks.
Shirley said: “I could not fault the care that was given to me during my time in the West Suffolk, and even though I cannot remember a lot of the time I was in critical care, Charlie said both he and I were well looked after there. I absolutely loved going to the FIT Group that was offered to me afterwards; it really increased my confidence and helped to build my strength up after such a difficult time.
“I try to attend as many of the coffee mornings as possible, when I’m well enough, and I was determined to attend the open evening to say thank you to Janet. One of the hospital volunteers was kind enough to drive my husband and I here, so it’s really like one big family.”
Further information about the Bury St Edmunds critical care coffee mornings can be found at www.icusteps.org/support/bury-st-edmunds and are open to anyone who has been through critical care at any time.
Shirley and Charlie McGowan at the WSFT critical care unit open evening
Back to Newsroom