Ethics of ICU admission (Clinical lunch chat held on 14 October 2025)

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Professor Guy Richards provides guidance on how to navigate decision-making in critical care, balance resource limitations, and apply ethical principles such as distributive justice in everyday practice.

Learning objectives

You will learn:

  • Differentiate criteria for ICU admission and recognise the complexities of determining who qualifies for intensive care
  • Evaluate the decision-making process for admission, acknowledging the limitations of human judgment and the influence of systemic constraints such as bed availability
  • Discuss access to healthcare as a constitutional and ethical right within the South African context, recognising the balance between rights and resource limitations
  • Apply ethical principles, particularly distributive justice, to guide fair allocation of scarce healthcare resources
  • Identify lawful versus unlawful clinical actions in end-of-life and ICU care, ensuring alignment with legal and ethical frameworks.

To access this module, please register or login:

For non-South African registered HCPs, click here:

deNovo Africa | Ethics of ICU admission