Dr Vilas Navapurkar

I am the senior clinician on the John Farman ICU, Addenbrooke’s Hospital which is as a tertiary referral centre for general and specialist critically ill patients and a world renowned unit for care of the critically ill transplant patients. Independent comparative data from the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC) shows that has the some of the best outcome data in the UK.

I have been a NHS Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine and Anaesthesia on this ICU for 20 years and have looked after some of the sickest patients in the country and from overseas. I have trained, worked and in led in this high pressure crucible of care for a total of nearly 30 years. I even met my wife to be on ICU whilst manually transfusing blood together in a patient with a major haemorrhage.

I was Director of the ICU for several years and as Director, and in addition to maintaining the highest standards of clinical and nonclinical governance, I implemented:

An expansion of the ICU serviceAn increased number of consultantsAn increased number of traineesThe Rapid Response Team to provide ICU without wallsThe UKs first ICU survivors Focus Group (not a support or care group) to learn from their experiencesIntegration and change management of a clinical information system (EPIC) on the ICUThe appointment of a University Lecturer in ICUThe resourcing and embedding of a psychology unit on the ICU for patients, relatives and increasingly for staff

This was during a time of an increasing mismatch between resources and demand and challenging discussions around resource allocation in the hospital.

At present my interests include:

The rapid identification and quantification of pathogens in ICU patients with a pneumonia (I formed and lead The Cambridge ICU Sepsis Group which includes The Sanger). My aim is to bring the genome to the bedsideFinding out how ICU patients and their families feel and how to improve their care from this information

I am particularly proud of:

The “always try” culture and proactive approach of the ICU team whatever the weather outside the ICU The fact that so many of our nurses and doctors choose to make a career in ICU after their time with usThe absence of compassion fatigue – we always keep providing excellent care (including at the end of life for the ~ 18% of our patients)

These qualities make it the best ICU in the country, a really difficult place to die and a privilege to work on and for.