The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered a nationwide audit of intensive care unit (ICU) facilities and gave states and Union Territories two months to assess infrastructural and manpower gaps and ascertain the equipment needed to bring critical care facilities at par with model guidelines by a court-appointed panel of experts.
The court simultaneously ordered a nationwide audit of nursing colleges, requiring the Indian Nursing Council (INC) to submit a report on hands-on training facilities available to students across the 800 colleges under it.
“States/UTs shall ensure gap assessment exercise is undertaken by them and completed in two months. Simultaneously, they will work out modalities of putting into place/implementation of the minimum standards required for having ICU in any institution, starting from Level 1 ICU,” directed the bench of justices Ahsanuddin Amanullah and R Mahadevan.
The directions were passed in proceedings wherein the court is considering framing uniform (ICU) guidelines, in regard to which a draft document by a 17-member expert committee consisting mostly of doctors across fields had earlier submitted a draft document, to which states and UTs were on April 20 ordered to respond.
The draft guidelines defines what a hospital ICU should provide based on parameters of personnel, infrastructure and treatment protocol, which provides for three tiers of ICU —the basic level (Level 1), followed by Level 2 and Level 3, depending on specialised care required.
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Additional solicitor general (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati and court-appointed amicus curiae advocate Karan Bharioke, who were both part of the expert committee, informed the court that states and UTs sought a period of six to nine months to conduct “gap analysis”, which the bench curtailed to two months. “India is in a critical stage where population is increasing by leaps and bounds with the healthcare facilities not able to match this demand,” noted the court.
The petition concerned a case filed before the national consumer court filed by Asit Baran Mondal, who sought compensation for the death of his wife in a Kolkata hospital in 2013. In the course of proceedings, the Centre informed the court about Model ICU/CCU guidelines prepared by the Union Health Ministry in 2023.
