Covid-19: the challenge of patient rehabilitation after intensive care
Jacqui Thornton
Abstract
Covid-19: the challenge of patient rehabilitation after intensive careAs the UK's coronavirus patients begin to leave ICUs, Jacqui Thornton examines how the NHS plans to meet a "tsunami of need" Jacqui Thornton LondonCovid-19 has shone a bright light on the impressive work of NHS intensive care units (ICUs) around the UK.Now, as the first patients who have had the new virus and spent days ventilated in ICUs are discharged, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy predicts a "tsunami of rehabilitation needs."Already there are question marks about whether appropriate rehabilitation-physical, cognitive, and psychological-will be available for the huge numbers of people who will need to deal with the enormous impact of a stay in critical care.Rehabilitation after a heart attack, trauma, or stroke has well established pathways.But rehabilitation for many of the thousands of people who spend time in intensive care every year is not automatic-despite severe muscle wastage and deconditioning, sleep disorders and severe fatigue, memory problems, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. 1These "general" ICU patients may be the sickest people in the country, but once they leave they may be getting the least support.