Back in January 2011 a number of patients, relatives and Recovery after Critical Illness (RaCI) staff started to think about setting up a support network. The main driver behind it was the experience of a previous ICU patient, Barry Vincent. He identified that it was through hearing another patient (Gordon Sturmey) talk to a group of nurses on the critical care course about his critical illness experience, i.e. sharing stories, that helped him recover and reconcile his own experience.
Sadly, Barry passed away and as a legacy to honour his wishes Nurse Consultant Melanie Gager (RaCI Lead Nurse) met with Gordon and together they committed to the vision of an ICU support network.
Melanie invited key patients and their relatives to be involved and the response was amazing. Meetings were set up to decide the objectives of the network and plan the structure of the public meetings, together with designing posters and a newsletter to promote the group, which were published in August 2011.
There was a media launch at the Royal Berkshire Hospital ICU, which included local radio, newspapers and TV interviewing the steering group members and ICU staff.
The first meeting was held on 23rd September 2011 at the Royal Berkshire Hospital Trust Education Centre and was kindly opened by Dr Carl Waldmann (previous RaCI medical lead).
The evening saw a patient presenting their ICU experience, followed by an open session and informal chats over tea and coffee. The informal chats proved a huge success and are part of every meeting that we have held to date.
Since the first meeting we have had presentations from patients, relatives, RaCI staff, medical professionals and many others, including researchers who have asked for our input into their projects.
The network could not function without the ongoing support of the ICU Charity, the RaCI team and administration support provided by the Royal Berkshire Hospital.
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Twenty people attended the first meeting but these numbers increased dramatically leading to a need for the steering group to select a new venue.
There was a desire to meet away from the hospital in a more informal setting with the option to accommodate more people.
We held the next meeting at Maiden Place Community Centre, where we still are. We have seen the numbers steadily climbing and on many occasions have exceeded fifty attendees at a meeting.
But our vision has never been about numbers, our mission was ‘if we can help just one person then we have accomplished our goal’.