The Team

Professor Jon Hulme is a Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine and Anaesthesia at Sandwell & West Birmingham NHS Trust, where he is joint clinical lead for Critical Care Services. He has a longstanding interest in resuscitation, trauma, acute care and medical education.

At the University of Birmingham, he leads basic life support training through RMD, which he cofounded in 1995. RMD's near-peer training model for UK Higher Education Institutions has been adopted into the Resuscitation Council UK portfolio, and Jon is a lead clinician driving its expansion across the UK.

Jon is also a senior prehospital emergency medicine doctor with West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) University NHS Foundation Trust, Midlands Air Ambulance Charity and Mercia Accident Rescue Scheme. He was a lead clinician in establishing the West Midlands MERIT trauma service and chaired the Birmingham, Black Country, Hereford & Worcester major trauma network board until 2025. He is the medical lead for Sandwell & West Birmingham NHS Trust's implementation of the national Martha's Rule patient safety programme, and was the Trust's lead clinician for resuscitation (2012-2025) and for major trauma (2013-2021).

He co-developed and ran the first critical care course in India for the Diploma in ICM, in association with the Indian National Board of Examinations, is a member of the ERC international faculty, and helped establish the Training in Emergency Airway Management (TEAM) Course in Qatar. Jon has published and presented widely on life support and pedagogy.

He remembers the kindness and time many people gave him during his own training, and tries to fulfil a commitment he made as a medical student: to do the same for others.

Dr Laura Kocierz is a consultant in Intensive Care Medicine and Anaesthesia at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.

Laura was inspired by Jon Hulme's BLS course in her first year of medical school at Birmingham University and has been involved with delivery of the BLS course throughout her undergraduate and postgraduate years. In 2012 Laura joined the Central Accident Resuscitation and Emergency (CARE) Team in Birmingham and the West Midlands as a volunteer doctor, gaining valuable early experience of prehospital medicine — an experience that forged her love of this discipline.

In 2017 she gained an out-of-training programme position with The Air Ambulance Service (TAAS) charity as a prehospital emergency medicine doctor covering Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Rutland. She subsequently returned to her hospital training programme with the West Midlands Deanery and continues to carry out shifts with TAAS as often as her schedule permits.

Laura has carried out research in the West Midlands in conjunction with colleagues in Sydney, Australia. Well aware of the emotional demands on the critical care and prehospital medicine team, she has also undertaken mentoring training so she can provide effective support to colleagues as the need arises.

Laura enjoys the ongoing development of The Critical CARE Course with the hope that it will inspire the new generation working across all aspects of critical care.

Dr Andy Burtenshaw is a consultant in Intensive Care Medicine and Anaesthesia at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.

He has an established interest in medical education, having taught on a variety of postgraduate courses regionally and internationally — including co-directing the first critical care course in India for the Diploma in ICM — before establishing and directing the first BASIC course in the West Midlands, which he led for five years.

During this time he was lead editor for the Cambridge University Press textbook Emergency Airway Management alongside Jonathan Benger and Jerry Nolan, which continues to serve as the course manual for the Royal College of Anaesthetists' TEAM (Training in Emergency Airway Management) course. He is a current member of the TEAM Course steering committee and led a two-year project establishing the course overseas for the first time — in Qatar — overseeing its continuing success.

His other professional interests include clinical research and quality improvement, alongside specialty interests in renal support, respiratory support, and vascular and ophthalmic anaesthesia. He has been involved for a number of years in national ICM Specialist Trainee recruitment, has been an EDIC examiner, has formed part of an external review team investigating excess mortality rates as part of the Keogh Rapid Review process, and has been a NICE Medical Technologies Evaluation Programme panel member.

Outside of work he is happiest spending time with family or bobbing about in a boat — all the better if the two can be accomplished at the same time.

Dr Robin Jootun is a Registrar in Intensive Care Medicine and Anaesthesia in the West Midlands, currently working at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. Inspired by several of the Critical CARE Course directors throughout his training, he has developed a strong passion for delivering high-quality intensive care to patients across the region.

He has a particular interest in medical education, having contributed to the development of a teaching programme for medical students at the University of Birmingham and regularly teaching on courses supporting candidates preparing for postgraduate examinations in Anaesthesia. Committed to the development of the multidisciplinary team, Robin has also been involved in the education and training of Advanced Critical Care Practitioners within the West Midlands.

As an Associate Principal Investigator for a multicentre randomised controlled trial in intensive care, he has gained valuable insight into the challenges and opportunities of conducting research in critical care and appreciates its vital role in advancing clinical practice and improving patient outcomes.

Through his involvement in the delivery of the Critical CARE Course, Robin aims to empower all members of the multidisciplinary team with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to provide exemplary care for critically ill patients and support their families.

Resident Representative on the course steering group, teaching near-peer sessions and bringing a registrar's perspective to ongoing course development.