Your GP

Your GP will receive a letter from the Doctors in the Intensive Care Unit, and from the Doctors on the general ward you went to afterwards. In it, your GP will be told about what happened to you. You should be aware that these letters may take some time to reach your GP,sometimes after your first appointment with him or her, so he or she may not always know that you've been so ill or spent time in Intensive Care.

Research from colleagues elsewhere in the UK suggests that GPs are sometimes not provided with the right types of information to help guide your care and treatment, particularly the specific physical and psychological issues that patients can have after Intensive Care, how best to treat those issues, or where to refer you if you need specialist care.It's also important to remember that GPs see an enormous number of patients, with an enormous range of health issues, and that GPs are likely to see only one or two patients every year who have been in Intensive Care.

In summary,while your GP will, in the vast majority of cases, be able to answer any questions you have, they may not always have the specialist knowledge of Intensive Care to answer any specific or detailed questions you might have about your illness, your care or your treatment while you were there.

What can you do to help your GP? It might help to give your GP a list of any questions you have, or to refer them to this website for information about common problems after Intensive Care. Elsewhere on this website, we have provided a list of these common problems-it might be helpful to print it off and show it to him or her when you go for your appointment.