Intensive care (ICU)

What is intensive care (ICU)?

An intensive care unit (ICU), sometimes called intensive therapy unit (ITU) or critical care, is the part of the hospital that looks after people who are seriously ill and whose body cannot work normally on its own. The aim is to support the failing parts of the body — such as breathing, blood pressure or the kidneys — to give the person the best chance to recover while their illness is treated.

People are usually in ICU because of a severe infection, a major accident, a serious operation, or because an organ such as the lungs, heart or kidneys is not coping. Many are sedated (kept in a sleep-like state) and have a breathing machine, so this guide is written mainly for the family and friends who visit them.

ICU is the highest level of care a hospital can give, with one nurse looking after one patient much of the time, and specialist doctors close by day and night. Being moved to ICU is not 'giving up' — it is the opposite. It means the team is doing everything possible.

Intensive care can support the body, but it cannot fix every illness, and not everyone survives even with the best care. The team will be honest with you about how things are going and what they hope to achieve.

Types, options & approaches

There may be different ways to do this. The right approach depends on the clinical question and your circumstances.

Levels of hospital care

People often move between these levels as they get better or more unwell. A move from ICU to HDU or a ward is usually a good sign.

Preparing for your treatment

• ICU admission is usually an emergency, so there is rarely time to prepare — this section is mainly to help families cope.
• Choose one main family contact to ring the unit and pass news on to everyone else; this protects the patient's care and saves repeating distressing updates.
• Save the unit's phone number and ask when the best times to call or visit are.
• Bring in glasses, hearing aids, dentures and a few familiar things (photos, music) — they help comfort and orientation.
• Ask the team for the name of the consultant in charge and how 'family meetings' are arranged.
• Look after yourself too: eat, rest and accept help. Recovery for the patient can take a long time, and you will be needed.
• If decisions about treatment may be needed, tell the team about any advance wishes, 'living will' or lasting power of attorney.

What happens

When someone arrives in ICU, the team works quickly to stabilise them. This may mean putting in a breathing tube and starting a ventilator, inserting drips and fine tubes (lines) into veins and an artery, and starting medicines to support blood pressure. Much of this happens before family arrive, and the patient is usually sedated so they are not distressed.

Each patient has a bedspace surrounded by monitors and pumps. The numbers and alarms can be frightening, but alarms are often just reminders for staff and rarely mean an emergency. A nurse is usually with the patient most of the time.

Every day the team does a 'ward round', reviewing every system of the body and adjusting the plan. They will arrange to talk with the family, often in a quiet room, to explain what is happening. It is normal not to take everything in at once — it is fine to ask the same question again.

As the person improves, support is slowly reduced: sedation is lightened, the breathing machine does less, and lines are removed. When they are stable enough, they move to a high-dependency unit or a ward to continue recovering.

Is this treatment right for me?

A good consultation should explore whether it's the right choice for you now — including reasons to wait or consider something else.

Before you decide

Use this as a shared-decision checklist. The aim is not just “can this be done?”, but whether it is right for you, now, with the risks and alternatives clearly understood.

Comfort, sedation or contrast choices

If local anaesthetic, sedation, contrast or pain relief is used, ask what is planned, why, and what it means afterwards.

The biggest risks come from how serious the original illness is, not from the ICU itself. Many ICU survivors have a long recovery with weakness, low mood and memory gaps — this is called post-intensive care syndrome and is common and recognised. Ask the team how the person is progressing day to day, and what recovery and rehabilitation are likely to involve.

Published figures to discuss

Outcomes in intensive care vary enormously depending on the illness, the person's age and health beforehand, and how many organs are affected. Because of this, no single survival or complication figure applies to everyone, and your team's honest view of your relative's situation is far more useful than a general statistic. After-effects on strength, memory and mood are common and well recognised, but their severity differs from person to person.

These are literature figures, not a personalised prediction. Your own risks and likely benefits depend on your circumstances, your health, and how your care is carried out and followed up.

What happens afterwards

Recovery from critical illness often takes much longer than families expect — frequently weeks or months, not days. Leaving ICU is an important step, but it is the start of recovery, not the end of it.

• Feeling very weak and tired, sometimes for weeks or months
• Gaps in memory, or muddled and frightening memories, of the ICU stay
• Low mood, anxiety or vivid dreams as the mind processes a serious illness
• Poor appetite and weight loss that slowly recovers
• Needing physiotherapy and gradual help to walk and look after yourself again

Aftercare

• Expect recovery to be gradual, with good days and bad days — this is normal after critical illness.
• Build up activity slowly with help from physiotherapists and the recovery team.
• Eat well and rest; the body needs a lot of energy to repair after a serious illness.
• Talk about confusing or frightening memories — a patient diary kept by family or staff can help make sense of them.
• Look out for low mood, anxiety or nightmares, and tell the GP or ICU follow-up team if they persist.
• Keep follow-up appointments, including any ICU recovery clinic, and keep up any rehabilitation exercises.
• Carers and family should also seek support — this is a hard experience for everyone, not just the patient.

• One main family contact agreed and unit phone number saved
• Glasses, hearing aids and dentures brought in
• A few familiar items, photos or music for comfort
• Notebook or diary to keep track of news and questions
• Names of the consultant and how family meetings are arranged
• Support lined up for family members who are coping with stress
• GP told once the person is home, for ongoing recovery support

⚠ Get urgent help if…

• While in hospital, the ICU team watches for problems around the clock — you do not need to monitor machines yourself.
• After going home, contact your GP or the recovery team if weakness, breathlessness or poor appetite is getting worse rather than better.
• Seek urgent help (or call 999) for new severe breathlessness, chest pain, or a high temperature with shivering, as infection can return.
• Get help for low mood, hopelessness or thoughts of self-harm — recovery affects the mind as well as the body.
• Watch for a hot, swollen or painful calf, which can signal a blood clot, and seek same-day advice.
• Tell your GP about flashbacks, nightmares or severe anxiety that are not settling — support is available.

Who to contact: your clinician, clinic or test provider first (keep their number to hand). For urgent advice when you can't reach them, call NHS 111. In an emergency, call 999.

General guidance — it doesn't replace the specific advice your specialist gives you.

Results & realistic expectations

A good result from intensive care is that the body's failing systems are supported long enough for the illness to be treated and for the person to recover and leave hospital. For some, recovery is complete; for others, some effects on strength, breathing, memory or mood remain.

ICU cannot guarantee survival, and it cannot reverse every illness. The team aims to give the best possible chance of recovery while keeping the person comfortable and treating them with dignity throughout, whatever the outcome.

How much someone recovers depends mostly on their underlying illness, their health beforehand and how long they were critically ill. Many people return close to their previous life, while others have longer-lasting effects on strength, breathing or memory. Recovery often continues to improve over many months.

Related tests, treatments or support

Intensive care often involves several types of support at once — for example a breathing machine, blood-pressure medicines and kidney filtering together. It works alongside treatment of the cause, such as antibiotics for infection (see sepsis management) or surgery. As the person improves, this support is gradually withdrawn.

Follow-up & long-term care

On the ward and after discharge, the team checks recovery, breathing, strength and mood, and arranges physiotherapy and any further treatment. Some hospitals run a critical care follow-up clinic a few weeks or months after discharge to help with the physical and emotional after-effects of a stay in intensive care.

• Keep up physiotherapy and gradual exercise to rebuild strength and stamina.
• Attend any ICU follow-up clinic or rehabilitation appointments offered.
• Tell the GP about ongoing low mood, anxiety, nightmares or memory problems.
• Allow many weeks or months for energy and concentration to return.

Repeat, follow-on and what comes next

• People often move between ICU, HDU and the ward more than once as they improve or relapse — this is normal.
• Some patients need a tracheostomy if they need a breathing machine for more than a few days.
• Plans are reviewed every day and changed as the situation changes; there is rarely a single fixed pathway.
• Recovery is not always a straight line, and setbacks do not mean the team has done anything wrong.

Ask what happens if the result is unclear or needs repeating, and what is included if further tests or follow-up are needed.

What good aftercare looks like

• Regular, honest family meetings in plain English with a named consultant and team.
• A single main family contact and a clear way to get updates.
• Early physiotherapy and rehabilitation, continued after leaving ICU.
• Support for the emotional after-effects, including patient diaries and, where available, an ICU follow-up clinic.
• Clear handover to the ward and GP, and information for family on what recovery may involve.

What affects the cost

Costs vary a great deal between people and providers, and we don't publish prices. What matters is understanding what drives the cost and making sure your quote is complete. The main things that affect it:

• Intensive care is usually NHS-funded emergency care, so most families will never see a bill for it.
• Where private critical care exists, cost is driven by the length of stay and the intensity of support needed.
• The number of organ-support treatments (ventilation, kidney filtering, blood-pressure support) affects cost.
• Specialist staffing — one-to-one nursing and consultant cover day and night — is a major cost.
• Drugs, scans, tests and any procedures carried out add to the cost.
• Rehabilitation, follow-up and any transfer to an NHS unit if the person becomes more unwell also matter.

• For NHS care, there is no charge — ask the team about practical support such as travel and parking instead.
• If care is private, ask exactly what the daily critical care fee includes.
• Ask whether consultant fees, drugs, scans and procedures are billed separately.
• Ask what happens, clinically and financially, if a transfer to an NHS unit becomes necessary.
• Ask how rehabilitation and follow-up after discharge are arranged and funded.
• Ask whether there is a cap, and who to contact about any insurance or billing questions.

On the NHS? Intensive care is almost always provided by the NHS, very often as an emergency; it is not generally a private, bookable service, and seriously ill private patients are frequently transferred to an NHS critical care unit.

You're entitled to your total cost in writing — including reports, follow-up and what happens if the result is inconclusive — before you decide.

Consent traps and marketing red flags

These are not small details. They are often where patients lose choice, time to reflect, or realistic expectations.

Choosing a specialist safely

• Check the specialist is on the GMC Specialist Register for this area.
• Make sure they work at a CQC-registered service, and look for membership of the relevant Royal College or professional body.
• You're entitled to time to consider and to have your questions answered before you agree — the specialist who looks after you should explain it, not a salesperson.
• Be wary of pressure: time-limited offers or deposits taken before you've had time to think are red flags, not bargains.
• You're entitled to your total cost in writing — including any follow-up — before you decide.

How Vuemedics verifies every consultant →

Take this to your consultation. A good specialist will welcome every one of these.

• What is the main problem you are treating, and how is it responding?
• What are the machines and lines doing for my relative right now?
• What are you hoping to achieve over the next day or two?
• Is my relative comfortable and free of pain?
• What should we expect when sedation is reduced or the breathing machine comes off?
• Is there an ICU follow-up or recovery clinic we can use later?
• Are you on the GMC Specialist Register for this area, and which Royal College or professional body are you a member of?
• Will you be the specialist who carries out my treatment, and who looks after me afterwards?
• What are the risks for someone like me, and how often do your own patients have a problem or need it repeated or redone?
• What does a realistic result look like — and what can this treatment not achieve?
• What are my options, including waiting, doing nothing for now, or choosing a different approach?
• Can I have written information, results and aftercare instructions in a format I can use, including any accessibility or communication support I need?
• What is the total cost in writing, including any follow-ups, and how much time do I have to decide?

Find a verified specialist for intensive care (icu)

Every consultant is GMC-checked and independently reviewed. Search by postcode and distance, or switch to a map. Ordered by rating, relevance and recency — never by who pays.

How we made this page

Medically reviewed by a GMC-registered consultant. Written in plain English, checked against NHS, NICE, GMC and relevant Royal College / specialist-society guidance, and kept under review. No clinic paid to appear on this page, and we publish no pricing. This is general information to help you prepare — it is not a substitute for advice from your own clinician. How we review our guides →

Source hierarchy: UK regulator and NHS/NICE guidance first, then relevant Royal College or specialist-society guidance, then peer-reviewed evidence for procedure-specific figures where available.

Sources & standards: ICUsteps — Intensive care: a guide for patients and relatives ICUsteps — Information for friends, relatives and visitors Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine — Guidelines for the Provision of Intensive Care Services (GPICS) NICE CG83 — Rehabilitation after critical illness in adults Intensive Care Society — Levels of adult critical care

Reviews reflect patients' experience of care, not clinical outcomes. For procedure volumes and outcome data see PHIN.

Last medically reviewed 2026-09-21. Spotted something wrong or out of date? Report an error in this guide.