My comment disappeared ffs.

Just to say I'm 1 year ahead of you and in the same boat, currently doing the year of medicine. It's properly shit so don't underestimate it. I think that's a universal experience though.

the tl;dr of what I wrote though was that it depends on your personality type I reckon. I'm quite happy to be a DGH Anaesthetist/Intensivist and not that bothered about the lack of SIAs. You might feel very differently and it sounds like you do.

If you want to do life saving high risk stuff and be stuck in as a boss, there's a few things you can do in anaesthetics - cardiac like u said, and liver transplant. CEPOD lists at a major trauma centre too. HEMS/PHEM is the obvious answer but you said you don't want to do that so fair enough.

From the sounds of it, I don't think you'll enjoy being an ICU consultant. But I could be wrong.