Critical care family liaison
If your relative has come to critical care as an urgent/unplanned case you will receive a call from our critical care family liaison nurse (this will be within 72 hours of an admission). The family liaison nurse will make sure you are happy with the information you are receiving. We may ask you a few questions about your relative, for example their likes and dislikes. This helps us to understand more about your relative as a person beyond their current situation as our patient. You can email us pictures of your relative for us to place at the bedside.
The critical care liaison nurse can help ensure you get updates as you need them and address any concerns you may be having in regards to your relatives stay. The best way is to contact via the email address with a number to call back on.
The email address is: uclh.
Interpreting services
Interpreters are available for most spoken languages and British Sign Language. We use telephone, face-to-face interpreters and text translation services.
Let us know as soon as possible if you require a face-to-face interpreter, as this can take up to 72 hours to arrange.
Helping to care
One of the most important things you can do to help care for your relative is to take good care of yourself during this time. This includes eating regularly, getting enough sleep, and resuming normal daily activities as far as possible when it is appropriate to do so.
It is important that family and friends recognise their own need to have adequate breaks away from the unit, particularly if their relative’s stay is an extended one.