Emergency Medicine and Intensive Care​


​Intensive Care:

​Doctors working in intensive care medicine (​ICM, ​also called critical care medicine) manage critically ill patients ​before, during and after potentially life-threatening failure of any of the body’s organ systems.

​An Intensive Care expert witness can give opinion on all aspects of care of the critically ill​, including organ system support and the investigation, diagnosis, and treatment of acute illness.

​Some areas the NHS lists as covered by this specialism are:
  • heart and cardiovascular failure
  • renal (kidney) failure
  • liver failure
  • reduced levels of consciousness or neurological impairment (including weakness)
  • gastrointestinal failure
  • respiratory failure
  • sepsis
  • severe trauma
  • acute intoxications and poisoning
  • ​recovery from major surgery
  • maternal complications around ​childbirth


Expert witnesses ​in Intensive Care ​​can render opinions as to the standard of care pertaining to ​intensive and ​emergency ​patients. Many ​I​ntensivists are ‘dual trained’ in ICM along with one of ​its partner specialties. Common partner specialties include anaesthesia, acute internal medicine, emergency medicine, renal medicine and respiratory medicine. ​

​Emergency medicine:

​Doctors in ​E​mergency ​M​edicine (EM) carry out the immediate assessment and treatment of patients with serious and life-threatening illnesses and injuries.​ They see patients of all age groups​,​ with a full spectrum of undifferentiated physical and behavioural disorders.​ Patients often present without diagnosis.

Our experts: