Primary and acute care
Intensive care expert witnesses
Listed intensive care expert witnesses address admission decisions, organ support, sedation, ventilation and the management of deterioration in critically ill patients. The evidence commonly concerns timing: when a change was recognised and what followed it.
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The evidence
What an intensive care expert witness is asked to determine
Critical care generates a dense and continuous record, including hourly charts, ventilator settings, blood gas results and infusion rates. That density allows a close reconstruction of the clinical course, and it also makes clear which decisions were taken with which information available.
- Whether referral to and admission for critical care occurred within an appropriate period.
- Whether ventilation, sedation and haemodynamic support were set and adjusted in line with the recorded parameters.
- Whether infection, bleeding or organ dysfunction was recognised and treated on the evidence available.
- Whether procedures such as line insertion, tracheostomy or transfer were performed and documented adequately.
- What can properly be said about the contribution of critical care to the eventual outcome.
Practitioners are listed across the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. Location can be narrowed in the register’s location listings before an instruction is made.
Claim contexts
Claims that instruct this discipline
These links describe the question intensive care evidence can answer. They do not prescribe the scope of an individual instruction.
Clinical negligence claims
Organ support, monitoring and escalation decisions during a critical care admission.
View claim type → 02Inquests
Critical care evidence where the circumstances of a death are being investigated.
View claim type → 03Brain injury claims
Hypoxic-ischaemic injury said to arise during critical illness.
View claim type →Search the register by the discipline used in the instruction.
See intensive care listingsReport routes
Reports prepared
The volume of critical care documentation usually justifies a records review report before any further evidence is commissioned. A breach and causation report then addresses the criticism and its consequence separately.
Anaesthetic, microbiology and neurological evidence frequently sits alongside a critical care opinion. The applicable requirements are held on the report pages.
Intensive care expert witness evidence
An intensivist expert witness reconstructs the critical care record hour by hour and states what the observations, settings and results support about the decisions taken.
Listings show the discipline and the areas covered, and enquiries go to the practitioner rather than the register. See guidance from Intensive Care Society alongside the case material.
Directory search
Intensive Care listings
Intensive Care Expert Witness Cases & Claims
Related expert witness specialties
Questions answered
Frequently asked questions
Will an Intensive Care expert witness respond to Part 35 questions?
Yes - CPR 35.6 entitles the parties to put written questions on a report, and answering them is part of the expert's duty to the court. A Intensive Care report prepared for proceedings in England and Wales carries the Part 35 statement of truth, with equivalent duties applying in the other UK jurisdictions.
Can an Intensive Care expert act as a single joint expert?
Where the court directs a single joint expert under CPR 35.7, the instruction is agreed between the parties and put jointly - a routine basis of instruction in this field. Whether a particular practitioner accepts SJE appointments is confirmed with the practitioner at the enquiry stage.
Will the expert attend joint discussions or give evidence at trial?
Where the court directs discussions between experts under CPR 35.12, they meet and produce a joint statement of what is agreed and what is disputed; attendance at trial - in person or by video link - is likewise a matter of court direction. These commitments are confirmed with the practitioner at instruction.
Can I choose an Intensive Care expert of a specific gender, or one who assesses remotely?
Yes on both counts. Every listing displays the practitioner's gender, consulting locations and assessment types - face to face, remote or both - so sensitive-instruction preferences can be applied at the shortlisting stage, before any contact is made.