Ministry issues ICU admission norms for critical patients

For the first time, the government has issued guidelines for hospitals on ICU admissions, directing that critically ill patients cannot be admitted to the intensive care unit if there is refusal by the patients and their relatives.

- KAVITA BAJELI-DATT

The guidelines on ICU admission and discharge criteria further clarify that the requirements for admitting a patient to the ICU should be based on organ failure, the need for organ support, or in anticipation of deterioration in the medical condition.

The Union Health Ministry’s new guidelines on ICU admissions, developed by 24 eminent physicians, including experts from Dubai and Canada, recommend that critically ill patients should not be admitted to the ICU if there is a treatment limitation plan for any disease.