Meet the Faculty Board

It is my absolute honour to lead the Faculty as we start work towards independent College status to bring benefits for our profession and patients.  I work in adult intensive care medicine in Sheffield and initially became involved with the Faculty through my role as Regional Advisor. I've also acted as Lead RA, Chair of the Careers, Recruitment and Workforce Committee and Vice Dean and have previously worked as an Assessment and Intervention Advisor for NHS Resolution, an Associate Postgraduate Dean for HEE Yorkshire and Humber and National Critical Care Tutor for the Royal College of Surgeons of England. My academic interests are in professionalism, decision making and patient assessment. 

I believe strongly in supporting and training those working within our critical care units to deliver holistic patient care and also have healthy, fulfilling professional lives. In my role as Dean, I aim to work with the Board to lead in a compassionate and collaborative fashion, seeking to maximise engagement with our Fellows and Members. 

Register of Interests: 

• No paid links with industry or other groups
• GMC Associate
• Research interests are professionalism, and clinical decision making particularly for the frail and elderly.
• Editorial Board Member BJA Education

I completed my undergraduate and post graduate training in London and Bristol before re-locating to South Wales as a consultant intensivist. I was subsequently Lead Clinician for the South East Wales Critical Care Network, Lead Clinician for Critical Care in Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, and Lead Clinician for Adult Critical Care in Cardiff. I was an examiner for the EDIC, DICM and FICM and a founder of several exam revision courses.

After appointment to the Faculty Board I became Faculty Chair for Careers, Recruitment and Workforce. We worked to encourage and support the careers of doctors-in-training in ICM, as well as supporting international medical graduates, speciality doctors and to facilitate the CESR process. We investigated and published on differential attainment in ICM recruitment. We need to retain those already doing critical care by improving work:life balance with better flexible job planning over career pathways. This is a fundamental issue for the growth and independence of critical care medicine as a specialty.
I was an editor and author for the Faculty’s 3 part series - ‘Critical Staffing’ series and represent the Faculty on the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges Wales (AMRCW).
I was appointed as Vice Dean of the Faculty and chair the Small Specialist Units Advisory Group (SSUAG) and also represent the Faculty on the Intensive Care Society’s Sustainability and Environmental group.

It is my pleasure to support Dr Danny Bryden as our Dean and work with the Faculty Team and Board to support our specialities’ core aims.

Register of Interests: 
Paid to chair meetings on the use of Procalcitonin as a biomarker in bacterial sepsis by ThermoFisher (Brahms U.K.)

I completed my medical training at Oxford University in 2010 and am currently the only (hopefully to change!) UK trainee specialising in cardiology and intensive care. I have trained in the Southwest and London and am currently working at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust where I have just ended my term as Chief Registrar. I am particularly interested in cardiogenic shock, heart transplantation and mechanical circulatory support. If you are interested in learning more about any of these topics then please do check our educational content at mls.training.

I am honoured and grateful to my colleagues to be elected as a national trainee representative. Intensive care is a fantastic speciality full of wonderful people who provide the best care possible to patients. However, the training experience of our doctors stands to be improved significantly. I hope to work with the board to improve the lives of our doctors and make the UK the best place in the world to train and work in intensive care. Please do get in touch anytime with any issues or ideas: @DrWaqasAkhtar

Register of interest:

• Associate College Tutor, Royal College of Physicians  
• Turner Warwick Lecturer, Royal College of Physicians  
• Trainee Representative in Organ Donation, NHS Blood & Transfusion London 
• Junior Editor, European Heart Journal Case Reports
• Director, Mechanical Life Support

I’ve been a consultant in full-time Critical Care, at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh since 2007. From the moment I took up my consultant post, improving the quality of ICM training and education has been a key priority of mine, progressing from Faculty Tutor, to Lead ICM RA for Scotland. I’m also a FFICM examiner and member of the SOE examiners’ group.

As Lead RA for Scotland, I have been in the privileged position of working with the SICS, the Scottish Critical Care Delivery Group, FICM and other stakeholders to increase the profile of ICM as a specialty in Scotland, secure dedicated funding for the ICM training programme and achieve a significant increase in ICM trainee numbers, within the Scottish Deanery. I’m keen to develop this work further, on a more UK-wide basis, in my new role. I have also represented the specialty in co-opted and ex officio roles, on the FICM TAQ and FICM CRW committees, SICS Council and RCoA Scottish Board.

I am an appointed member of the FICM Legal and Ethical Policy Unit and hold an MA in Health Care Ethics in Law. I’m particularly interested in treatment escalation decision making, end of life care and capacity law, as it applies to all four UK nations. One of my ongoing priorities, is to educate and train critical care health care workers in this field, stimulate ethical analysis and debate and ensure a patient-centred approach, to decision making.

I’m delighted and extremely honoured to have been elected to the FICM Board. I am very grateful for the opportunity to support the development of our specialty and will do my very best, to represent the views of the electorate.

Register of Interests: 
No competing interests

Qualified from Mysore University, India in 2001 and moved to the UK in 2003 with a keen interest to pursue a career in Intensive Care Medicine (ICM). 
Consultant in Anaesthesia and ICM at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHTR) since 2015 after completing training in the Northwest. 
Associate Director for Postgraduate Medical Education at LTHTR since April 2022.

Royal College of Anaesthesia / The Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine (FICM) MTI lead since 2019 and member of the RCOA MTI leadership group.
Member of FICM’s Careers, Recruitment and Workforce Committee since 2019 and member of the FICM Training, Assessment and Quality committee since 2021. 
FICM CESR lead and RCOA CESR assessor since 2022.

Register of interests:

• Ultrasound and ICU beyond walls 
• Workforce development and developing support systems for career progression of locally employed doctors. 
• Simulation based human factors and communications skills training

Following Medical School in Birmingham, Sarah trained in Anaesthesia & Intensive Care Medicine in the Midlands and East Anglia. She then worked as a Consultant in New Zealand before taking up her Anaesthesia & Intensive Care Consultant post with East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust in 2002, with interests in Hepato-Biliary Anaesthesia and nutrition. Following Faculty Tutor, RA for the North West & Deputy Lead RA roles, she is now Lead RA: trainee & trainer education and support is her passion. She also sits on the Curriculum Re-write Group, FICMTAQ, CESR Equivalence Committee, and is an FFICM examiner. She recently contributed to the Critical Foundations document, a framework for Foundation Doctors in Intensive Care Medicine. Research interests include several expeditions to high altitude to study the physiology of hypoxia.

To address the work/life balance she is a wife, mother to 3, netball & rugby fan, enjoys cycling, running and the outdoors in general.

Register of Interests: 
No competing interests.

I was born and raised in Australia – G’day. After completing my medical training at the University of Queensland, I commenced work in 1994 at Rockhampton Base Hospital, which was staffed predominantly by UK graduates. Little did I expect the way this first job would alter my life. Clearly influenced, I took an 18-month role in anaesthesia in the UK at Leicester and it was during this time I had my first taste of intensive care. After a 6-month travelling sojourn I started anaesthesia registrar training back in Australia at Cairns Base Hospital. It was here I met my UK wife to be. After completing my anaesthesia training (with as many ICU rotations as I could get) we moved to the UK in 2002. After a brief spell back in Australia to sit the Australian ICU exam, I took up a consultant role in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care in Nottingham in 2005. Since 2011 my clinical commitments have been entirely intensive care.

The two interests which have fuelled my non-clinical roles are teaching and ethics.

After becoming a consultant, I ran the regional ICM education for ten years and founded the multidisciplinary deceased donation local simulation day in Nottingham.  I developed this teaching day into the deceased donation course for intensive care trainees run by NHS Blood and Transplant. I thoroughly enjoy lecturing and have made it a big part of what I do non-clinically. My metabolic acidosis talk on YouTube is said to be a local ICU favourite.

In 2009 I became the local Clinical Lead for Organ Donation in Nottingham and then in 2011 the Midlands Regional Lead. This led to my subsequent appointment as the UK Deputy National Lead for NHS Blood and Transplant in 2013 which became the National Lead role in 2018. One of my proudest achievements has been to help found and continue to support the posthumous Order of St John Award for Organ Donation which has been given to over 5,800 UK donors and their families.

I served for four years as a member of the UK Donation Ethics Committee until its closure in 2016 and I am the current Chair of Nottingham’s Ethics of Clinical Practice Committee.

I publish extensively, particularly on the diagnosis of death, deceased organ donation and medical ethics.

Register of Interests: 

• No paid links with industry or other groups
• Seconded role as Associate Medical Director - Deceased Organ Donation, NHS Blood and Transplant
• Chair, National Organ Donation Committee
• Co-Chair, Academy of Medical Royal Colleges' task and finish group to update the 2008 Code of Practice for the Diagnosis and Confirmation of Death

I am the clinical lead for critical care in South Tyneside and Sunderland.  My clinical work is split over two sites, working between a large general ICU and one of the country’s smallest units.  I also deliver anaesthesia, but that role is diminishing as time goes by.

My first involvement with FICM was as a faculty tutor, subsequently becoming the deputy clinical lead for the e-portfolio.  I worked to improve the ‘old portfolio’ before helping to develop the lifelong learning portfolio and prepare it for launch.   

In 2016 I was appointed by the faculty to work with Health Education England to create the e-ICM programme.  I then formed the education sub-committee, which oversees the educational strategy of the faculty and produces regular content under the banner of FICMLearning.  I joined the Training Assessment and Quality Committee in 2019, and in 2021 I was delighted to be awarded a Faculty Commendation.   

Working with the faculty has allowed me to make a positive difference to the specialty, something I plan to continue whilst a member of board.  

Register of Interests: 

No competing interests.

I am a Consultant in Intensive Care and Respiratory Medicine at the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and Associate Professor at the University of Birmingham. I graduated from Bart’s and the London Medical School, completing clinical training in London and higher specialist training in Intensive Care Medicine, Respiratory and Internal Medicine in the West Midlands.
I am currently a Faculty Tutor at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust and co-Education lead of our large department. Regionally I am the Integrated Academic Training Lead for ICM, Acute and Respiratory Medicine and have led the successful growth of our ACF and ACL programme. I sit on the ICM and Respiratory Training committees and the School of Anaesthesia Board. I am the Deputy Lead of the Birmingham Acute Care Research Collaborative integrating research between the NHS and academia. Nationally I sit on the BTS Critical Care Advisory Group. As Programme Director of the Birmingham NIHR/Wellcome Clinical Research Facility and Deputy Theme Lead of the cross-cutting Acute Care Research Collaborative within the Birmingham Health Partnership I oversee a breadth of academic and industry led research.
I am immensely honoured to have been elected to the FICM board. I am passionate about representing the diverse voice of our critical care community and to ensure research, education, innovation and well-being is embedded in practice to future proof the specialty for our patients and members. 
Outside of medicine I am the proud father of three children, governor of our local school and enjoy travelling and experiencing new cultures.

Register of interests:

No competing interests.

I am a consultant in Intensive Care Medicine and my clinical work is at Manchester Royal Infirmary.

I graduated from Medical School in 2003 and completed my training in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine in the North West. I worked as a consultant in a district general hospital for ten years, and I was Clinical Director of my unit for 4 years (December 2017-2021). In 2023 I moved to a large tertiary centre and I have since ceased practicing anaesthesia.

Having been Clinical Director during the pandemic means I have strategically planned and increased ICU capacity by 300%, adapted to the needs of the pandemic, ensured the welfare of all critical care staff, submitted data to national stocktakes and presented at peer reviews. Having worked in both a DGH and teaching hospital means I have a unique view of ICM and can relate to the difficulties faced in different types of unit.

I was Chair of the Women in ICM  subcommittee from 2021 to 2023 inclusive. This role allowed me to promote ICM as a career for all and work on a national committee for the benefit of both ICM doctors and the specialty as a whole. I am also the Lead for FICM Thrive mentoring scheme which launched in May 2021.

I passionately believe in compassionate leadership, clear communication and workforce wellbeing as positive actions in these areas increases patient safety.

Register of Interests: 

• ICM ST3 recruitment medical lead
• GPICS 3 section editor
• Joint medical lead for the Greater Manchester Critical Care Network
•  Previous Chair of Women in ICM – a subcommittee of FICM
• Lead for Thrive – FICM mentoring project.
• Previous Examiner for the Royal College of Anaesthetists, for the Final FRCA (2020 - 2023).

Jules is an intensive care consultant, being appointed back in 1992 and with a background in Hepatology and hence a specific interest in all aspects of liver failure. She has extensive clinical and managerial experience in critical care, but her main passion remains clinical translational research; with bedside experience driving research hypothesis and associated studies.  

Register of Interests: 

• Medical advisory Board Pulsion and Excelenz (non -renumerated) 
• Liver Failure, prognostication and liver support 
• Immune dysfunction in liver failure (Supported through Grants from various Charities, no industrial sponsorship)

I have been a Consultant in Critical Care and Anaesthesia at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust since 2005, following medical school at Bristol University and postgraduate specialist training in the South West and Wessex regions that included overseas posts at the Alfred in Melbourne, Australia and at the University of Michigan.   My professional interests are in medical education, ethics, and patient safety.

I have previously been Faculty Tutor, Clinical Lead for Organ Donation and the Clinical Lead for Simulation at Portsmouth Hospitals.  I have been a FFICM examiner since 2014, as an OSCE sub-group member with an interest in the Simulation station.  From 2016, I have been the Regional Advisor for Wessex, and more recently FICM’s Deputy Lead and then Lead Regional Advisor during which terms I organised three TLAM meetings and sat on the TAQ committee.  The terms have coincided with the pandemic and being the FICM’s lead for the transition to the 2021 ICM curriculum.  Whilst testing and turbulent times, it has been enlightening and a privilege to have been in these positions, working closely with key FICM personnel and the stakeholders we interact with to help coordinate the specialty’s response and to keep ICM specialist training on track.

I am delighted, humbled and honoured to have been elected to the FICM Board.  I aim to embrace and respond to the challenges and opportunities that the specialty of ICM faces, now and in the future. Training and supporting the workforce is key; my goal is to help steer strategic aims to recruit and retain an appropriately trained workforce that can deliver the high quality, standards-driven multi-disciplinary care that the patients and families we care for expect and deserve.  I will do my very best to represent the views of the membership when doing so.

Outside of medicine, I am the proud father of two daughters in their early 20s, and enjoy the outdoors, predominantly on two wheels in lycra riding up hills.
 

Register of interests:

• No competing interests
• HEE Wessex Associate Dean (patient safety, simulation & TEL)

I completed my medical training at Oxford University in 2012 and to date have spent all of my postgraduate years in the West Midlands Deanery.  I am a dual anaesthetic and intensive care trainee, and although I’ve always been an intensivist at heart, I was relatively late to formally join the specialty, and considered non-training routes before committing to a training number.   I am also less than full time, and have been through multiple iterations of the curriculum, as well as various portfolio changes, which I believe makes me well seasoned in navigating training difficulties and the politics that go alongside it.

My main non-clinical interest is research and I am currently involved in a project modeling postoperative risk in elective major non-cardiac surgery.  During the pandemic I held a local Trainee Wellbeing Lead position helping to develop longer term wellbeing strategies and increase awareness that wellbeing is more than just yoga and meditation.  Since then have also been a Less Than Full Time Trainee Lead and managed bespoke rotas in a large tertiary centre where 30/100 trainees were part time.  I am also currently the joint West Midlands ICM Trainee Representative and have been involved in projects to develop the local post-FFICM education programme, as well as produce a handbook that troubleshoots the common training issues.   I am really looking forward to bringing my experience from regional roles to the national level and strengthening the regional representative network to empower our trainees at both local and national levels.

Outside of work, I spend my time refereeing my two boys, juggling the school run, attending children’s birthday parties and very occasionally I do a little ringside doctoring for England Boxing events.

Register of interests:

• Risk modeling in perioperative acute kidney injury
• Advocate for trainee wellbeing and less than full time training
• England Boxing affiliated Doctor

I qualified from the University of Manchester in 1998 and since 2004 have been the Specialist Pharmacist in Critical Care and Burns at Whiston Hospital, part of St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. I have been a pharmacist prescriber since 2007 and have a specific interest in education and training, safe prescribing and, at a UK level, workforce development. I am also passionate about research, as well as recently completing my MPhil examining the role of different administration methods of antibiotics in septic patients, I am Principal Investigator in my Trust for a number of studies including BLING III and RECOVERY. My interest in safe prescribing has led me to be actively involved in the online injectable medicines guide known as Medusa and I sit on the advisory board. I currently Chair the United Kingdom Clinical Pharmacy Association (UKCPA) Critical Care Group. We provide a number of educational masterclasses a year currently just for pharmacists but hoping to open these up to the wider MDT. I am an accredited tutor at Liverpool John Moores University teaching both undergraduate and postgraduate pharmacists about critical care

My three young children (and dog) keep me on my toes outside of work. In my free time I like to cycle, garden, walk, bird watch, play guitar and read. The diversity of interests in my personal life helps to keep my work and home life balanced.

Register of Interests: 

• LJMU accredited tutor (2010 to present)
• UKCPA CCG Chair (2012 to present)
• Medusa advisory board (2017 to present)
• RPS accredited Faculty assessor (2017 to present)
• UK Critical Care Research Group (UKCCRG) organising committee   (2018 to present)
• Co-opted member of the Intensive Care Society’s Standards and Guidelines Committee (2019 to present)
• Adult Critical Care Clinical Reference Group (2019 to present)
• COVID 19 related groups
  • Medicines and Compounding Cell
  • Meds Workstream: NHSE&I National Clinical Group
  • RCoA, FICM, Pharmacy lead, NHSE&I weekly catch up (2020 to present)
• Short life Digital Advisory Board – Gilead (Remsesivir) - Paid consultancy (2020)

Carole is a Consultant Nurse / ACCP from the Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust. Care has been involved in the development of the ACCP role since it’s’ pilot for the New Ways of Working in Critical Care. Alongside practising as an ACCP in her ICU Carole has been involved in developing the role nationally via the National Framework for Advanced Critical Care practitioners, the RCoA via the Allied profession related to anaesthesia and now working with FICM to develop the core curriculum and syllabus for CCT for ACCPs. Carole is elected chair of the National Association of Advanced Critical Care Practitioners [NaACCP].

Register of Interests: 

• Consultant Advanced Critical Care Practitioner
• Development, regulation and registration of ACCPs as part of intensive care workforce.
• Role of Advanced Critical Care practitioner in clinical practice.
• Honorary research  fellow to University of Plymouth
• Elected UK nursing representative to ESICM
• Elected member of the South West Clinical Senate

Pauline worked in the NHS as a nurse and manager for 27 years specialising in intensive care and neurosciences. She worked in hospitals and NHS trusts in Cardiff, Derby, Nottingham, Cambridge and Oxford. In 2005, she moved to the Office of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman where she focused on high risk and high priority investigations into complaints about the NHS and government services. During her final two years at PHSO she held two roles simultaneously: Assistant Director - Complex Casework and Head of Clinical Advice. She retired in December 2018. Pauline enjoys travel and learning about the history of art. She is a volunteer for the National Trust.

Register of Interests: 
No competing interests 

I am Defence Consultant Advisor (DCA) in Intensive Care Medicine to the Surgeon General. I graduated from Manchester Medical School and undertook postgraduate medical training in Leeds, Newcastle, New South Wales, Blackpool, Preston, Manchester, Birmingham and Ottawa. 

I joined the RAF as a first year Anaesthetic Registrar. I became a Defence Medical Services Consultant in 2014, working in Anaesthetics and Intensive Care Medicine at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. As of December 2022, I work clinically at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle. 

My military role includes duties with the Critical Care Air Support Team (CCAST) based at Tactical Medical Wing, RAF Brize Norton. I have deployed overseas on multiple occasions in the ICM, Anaesthetic and CCAST role. I have also deployed as Clinical Director of an RAF forward surgical team. 

Register of Interests: 
No competing interests

I graduated from UCL and undertook postgraduate training in medicine (to registrar level), anaesthetics and critical care; I was appointed as a Consultant at UCLH in 2010. I have been NHSBT Trust Clinical Lead for Organ Donation, Clinical Lead for the UCH Post-Anaesthetic Care Unit, and FICM Faculty Tutor. I am a Professor at UCL, researching how to improve the safety and quality of perioperative and critical care; related to this, I am the Director of the NIHR Central London Patient Safety Research Collaboration, focusing on surgery, perioperative, acute and critical care pathways. I was a trainee RCoA Council member (2008-12), academic TPD for anaesthetics in London (2011-2017); National Institute for Academic Anaesthesia training lead (2012-2017) and Director of the RCoA’s Health Services Research Centre (2016-22). 

I was appointed to my current role for NHS England (NHSE) in 2020 and have been privileged to provide clinical leadership to the NHSE critical care response to COVID19 throughout the pandemic. I now clinically lead NHSE transformation programmes in critical care and perioperative care. These aim to improve access, reduce system- and patient-level inequalities and improve care delivery and outcomes for patients who could benefit from critical care and surgery. Fundamental to these plans is development and implementation of sustainable ways to support our multidisciplinary workforce to deliver the best possible care in a safe and supportive environment. I am honoured to be co-opted to the FICM board in my NHSE role. 

I am married to a very patient and supportive inventor and live in Sussex with him and our adopted children aged 3, 6 and 7. 

Register of Interests: 

• Co-Director Elegant Design and Solutions Ltd, an SME focused on medical and humanitarian innovation
• Co-Director Bloomsbury Innovation Group, a Community Interest Company (social enterprise) focused on medical innovation. 

Steve Mathieu is a Consultant in Critical Care at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust and the Divisional Director for Clinical Delivery (Critical Care, Anaesthetics, Theatres, Radiology, Pharmacy, Therapies, Blood Sciences and Pathology). He was previously the Clinical Director of Critical Care when the ICU was rated outstanding in all domains by the CQC.

Steve is President of the Intensive Care Society (ICS) and his previous roles for the Society have included Congress Director for State of the Art (SOA), Honorary Treasurer and Council Member.

Register of Interests: Intensive Care Society Council Member 2016-19, Honorary Treasurer 2019-21, President Elect 2021-22, President 2022-present

Carli is the Director of Clinical Skills (Associate Professor) in the School of Health Sciences (SHS) at the University of Nottingham with a clinical role as a Senior Sister on Paediatric Critical Care (PCC) at Nottingham Childrens Hospital (NCH).
Being Australian and having completed her Nursing Degree at Sydney University in 1998, Carli has utilised Nursing to travel and gain extensive international clinical experience in a variety of fields before finding her passion in PCC. 
Carli completed her MSc in Advanced Nursing in 2012 and is currently undertaking her PhD in the exploration of the role of children’s nurses and the challenges faced. 
Carli has now undertaken the role as the President of the Paediatric Critical Care Society (PCCS), doing so as the first nurse and female to do so, with the support of the PCC Council and community. This has come after a period of being President-Elect, Vice-Presidency and nurse member on Council where she has been involved in Critical Care Education & EQA; PCCS Wellbeing project; PCC standard revision; Paediatric National Organ Donation Committee; UK Critical Care Nursing Alliance and Critical Care Leadership Forum. Her passions within paediatric intensive care are workforce retention and wellbeing; education including clinical skills and simulation/immersion. 
Outside of work, Carli is a wife and mother in a, mostly Australian, cricket and rugby loving family, who love to travel, socialise, going to concerts, and down time.

Register of Interests: 
No competing interests