Moses Chikungwa is Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine (Critical Care) and Anaesthesia and is part of the Intensive Care Unit Team looking after the sickest patients at royal Stoke University Hospital.

The ITU Team is made up of consultants, trainees, advanced critical care practitioners and nurse and as a consultant Moses’ role is to review all referrals for admission to ICU to determine urgency, appropriateness and therapeutic interventions to be offered for the specific clinical condition.

He said: “This kind of work is quite challenging because of the extreme clinical state of most of the patients we admit to ICU. The therapeutic interventions and care are very intense and can be both physically and emotionally draining. Hence this is a specialty with one of the highest ‘burn out’ rate in the whole medical field!

“Critical care capacity is a scarce resource in the UK and world over. As an admitting Critical Care consultant you always have to select and prioritise the admissions.  This is the bit which every Critical Care consultant hates and finds challenging.”

“Despite all these challenges, I still enjoy this field.  It’s very rewarding when you see some of those who were close to dying actually wave at the team as they leave to  step down to a general ward area.”