Pulmonary medicine and (adult) critical care medicine in Europe.

There has been growing concern within the European Respiratory Society (ERS) that pulmonary physicians are becoming less involved in the practise of intensive care medicine (ICM). A Working Party (WP) was therefore established to identify issues that might explain this trend. No precise terms of reference were issued to guide this exercise. The WP ensured that its report focussed on improving patient care. With this proviso, the WP aimed to: 1) briefly identify the current working practices of pulmonary physicians practicing ICM in six European Union (EU) countries (France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain and UK); 2) discuss possible opportunities to expand the influence of pulmonary physicians in the provision of acute care; and 3) determine the implications of 1) for training programmes.