The Apex Court issued a notice to the Central Government and the Medical Council of India to answer whether any guidelines are prescribed for private hospitals on providing care to patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and Critical Care Unit (CCU). In the case relating to medical negligence where it was contended that the treating physician should have been well advised to ask for a Lever Function Tests (LFT) as that was absolutely necessary but the same was not done which amounted to gross negligence.
The petitioner urged that neither the Union of India nor the Medical Council of India nor the State Governments are prescribing any guidelines for treatment of the patients in the Intensive Care Units (ICU) or Critical Care Units (CCU) and also that there is no proper care at the stage of operation or post-operational stage. Considering the contention and the fact that the medical negligence cases are increasing specially in private hospitals, the Supreme Court issued notice to the Union of India, the Medical Council of India and to all the State Governments represented by the Health Secretaries and asked them to submit their reply within 6 weeks from the date of this order.
