Intensive care only if it can improve patient's condition — what India’s 1st ICU admission norms say

New Delhi: Critically ill patients should not be admitted to Intensive Care Units (ICUs) if they or their next of kin refuse the intensive treatment or if they have any disease with a treatment limitation plan that indicates ICU interventions will not be beneficial..

The guidelines adopted for India after studying similar norms around the world, however, are only advisory in nature and are not binding on hospitals or doctors...

The guidelines say that patients with an altered level of consciousness or with a recent onset hemodynamic instability such as shock and irregular heartbeat and those with acute illness requiring intensive monitoring or organ support should be given ICU care...

They also dwell upon the need to immediately discharge patients in case of return of physiological aberrations to near normal or baseline status and reasonable resolution and stability of the acute illness, and in cases where the patient or family agrees for ICU discharge for a treatment-limiting decision or palliative care...

The guidelines were necessitated as ICU care in several cases imposed unjustifiable emotional and financial burdens on families of patients who are terminally ill or having the last stages of an incurable illness, Mani told ThePrint...

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