Critical staffing matters
Providing safe critical care services is core business for acute hospitals; this is ever more challenging when faced with burgeoning elective surgical pathways, an ageing and more co-morbid population, and new treatment modalities. Maintaining an appropriately trained, motivated workforce is key to this.
The FICM’s Careers, Recruitment and Workforce Committee (CRW) has been seeking as much data as possible regarding the staffing of ICUs in the UK. The FICM conducted its annual census, of clinical leads, in 2022. We publish some of the analysis in FICM’s Critical Eye publication. The 2023 census will look to strengthen our understanding of the issue all ICUs are faced with. The Scottish Critical Care Delivery Group’s detailed census resulted in the Scottish government supporting 16 newly funded intensive care medicine specialty training posts for 2023.