Standardising care in ICUS

The SC's summons to the senior-most health officials of 28 states and union territories to be present in court on November 20 with show cause affidavits for their failure to implement its orders of August 19 and inviting contempt is a deserved reprimand.

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Exercised over their casual approach to the issue of framing standards for Intensive Care Units (ICU) and Critical Care Units (CCU) in all hospitals, Justices Ahsanuddin Amanullah and N. Kotiswar Singh ordered the officials to submit a report of compliance too. Evidently, the bureaucracy in states ranging from Maharashtra to West Bengal did not work with the medical community to frame and enforce rigorous standards for healthcare institutions, ignoring the plight of the average citizen in terms of facilities, costs, and medical outcomes. The top court took up the matter after a petition was filed in 2016 on medical negligence and wanted care standards codified for different grades of ICUs and CCUs. While the Union government undertook the standard-setting exercise in 2023, most states and UTs dropped th