Improving Long-Term Recovery after Critical Illness in the UK

Critical illness is any form of illness that represents an immediate threat to life.The major purpose of Intensive Care Units (ICUs) is to treat patients with potentially reversible forms of critical illness. Until recently, the major focus in ICU research has been on survival, usually short-term survival, and with modern day ICU treatment around 80% of critically ill patients survive to hospital discharge. However, attention is now moving from shortterm survival to long-term outcomes and the process of long-term recovery after critical illness. Long-term recovery comprises physical performance, psychological function, and quality of life and Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL), with the latter attempting to measure the overlap between health status and overall quality of life.