The ICU has two responsibilities that may sometimes conflict:
First: The doctor is entrusted to provide medical assistance to the patient as an individual.
Second: The doctor is entrusted with the use of intensive care resources to provide the best services to the total patients.
The inconsistency between these two responsibilities lies in the fact that the doctor oversees the unlimited provision of services to an incurable patient, which leads to the enrichment of these services and depriving others of them. For example, a severely curable cirrhosis patient with severe bleeding requires blood transfusion in very large amounts that may consume most of the blood bank, depriving others who may need a small amount to save their lives as accident patients.
The same applies to a patient who can not be healed to the only remaining bed in the intensive care unit, and that is denied to another patient whose chances of healing may be great if he is given proper treatment.
A number of ICUs have decided that "patients with terminal illnesses are not likely to be cured and are unlikely to benefit from intensive care. They should not be admitted to intensive care departments."
First: The doctor is entrusted to provide medical assistance to the patient as an individual.
Second: The doctor is entrusted with the use of intensive care resources to provide the best services to the total patients.
The inconsistency between these two responsibilities lies in the fact that the doctor oversees the unlimited provision of services to an incurable patient, which leads to the enrichment of these services and depriving others of them. For example, a severely curable cirrhosis patient with severe bleeding requires blood transfusion in very large amounts that may consume most of the blood bank, depriving others who may need a small amount to save their lives as accident patients.
The same applies to a patient who can not be healed to the only remaining bed in the intensive care unit, and that is denied to another patient whose chances of healing may be great if he is given proper treatment.
A number of ICUs have decided that "patients with terminal illnesses are not likely to be cured and are unlikely to benefit from intensive care. They should not be admitted to intensive care departments."
