Support patient care with new ICU diary

Having a loved one in the Horsley Intensive Care Unit at The Walton Centre can be a very emotional and worrying time.  

With 20 beds, the unit is full of complex, life-saving machines and critically ill patients. 

For both patients and family members it can be a frightening and confusing experience, so staff have created a new ICU patient diary, to explain what goes on in the unit and chart a patient’s progress. 

Oonagh Doherty, ICU Matron, said: “Patients and family members have found it very useful to look back at notes and diaries they have made during the time they’ve been a patient in ICU. Patients may be in a coma or sedated, or on medication and can’t remember things, which can be very scary. It’s also good for family members; there’s a lot going on and it’s comforting to be able to look back and review progress.” 

The diary also explains the different equipment in ICU, medical terms which might be heard, and has space for family members to complete information about their loved one so staff can get to know them better to enable us to treat them better and with the respect and dignity they deserve. 

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Notes to editors

Further information, or to arrange an interview, please contact the Communications Team at The Walton Centre on 0151 556 3397 or wcft.communications@nhs.net

The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust is the only hospital trust in the UK specialising in neurology, neurosurgery and pain services. Although the majority of patients come from Merseyside, Cheshire, North Wales, Lancashire and the Isle of Man, for some specialist treatments of complex disorders we see patients from all parts of the country, referred by their GPs or other neurologists, neurosurgeons and pain clinicians.

The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust was rated as ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission. The independent regulator of all health and social care services in England published its rating on Friday 21 October 2016, following announced and unannounced inspection visits to the Trust in April 2016.

For more information please visit: www.thewaltoncentre.nhs.uk or follow the Trust on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust, Lower Lane, Fazakerley, Liverpool L9 7LJ
0151 525 3611