The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered a nationwide review of intensive care unit (ICU) facilities and gave states and union territories two months to assess infrastructure and manpower gaps and ascertain necessary equipment to bring critical care facilities at par with model guidelines by a court-appointed expert committee.
The court simultaneously ordered a nationwide review of nursing colleges and asked the Indian Nursing Council (INC) to submit a report on practical training facilities available to students across its 800 colleges.
“The states/union territories shall ensure that the gap assessment exercise is undertaken by them and completed within two months. At the same time, they will work out modalities for establishing/implementing the minimum standards required for the presence of an ICU in any institution, starting from the first level of ICU,” the bench of Justices Ehsanuddin Amanullah and R Mahadevan directed.
The directions were passed in the proceedings in which the court is considering the formulation of the Intermediate Guidelines (ICU), to which the states and union territories were ordered to respond on April 20 to a draft document prepared by a 17-member expert committee consisting mostly of doctors from various fields.
The draft guidelines define what a hospital ICU should provide based on staffing standards, infrastructure and treatment protocol, which stipulates three levels of ICU – basic level (Level 1), followed by Level 2 and Level 3, depending on the specialized care required.
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Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Aishwarya Bhatti and court-appointed advocate amicus curiae Karan Bhariuk, both part of the expert panel, informed the court that the states and union territories had requested a period of six to nine months to conduct a “gap analysis”, which the bench shortened to two months. The court noted that “India is going through a critical phase where the population is growing at a rapid pace and healthcare facilities are unable to meet this demand.”
The petition relates to a case filed before the National Consumer Court filed by Asit Baran Mondal, who sought compensation for the death of his wife in a hospital in Kolkata in 2013. In the course of the proceedings, the Center informed the court of the model guidelines for ICU/ICU prepared by the Union Health Ministry in 2023.
