The Right to Health is universally recognised as an inherent human right, encompassing the provision of emergency medical care, which plays a critical role within this framework. Emergency medical care is focused on delivering immediate or urgent medical interventions required to preserve life.

Many countries around the world have established emergency medical care (EMC) laws or developed corresponding high-standard systems to ensure competent emergency medical care for all individuals in need.

In India, for instance, the judiciary, through various landmark judgments, has interpreted Article 21 of the Indian Constitution to include the Right to Healthcare. However, specific rights to emergency medical care and associated standards, particularly standards for commensurate systems, are not comprehensively established in the country. There is no explicit constitutional provision or statutory right under any legislation or court judgment.

In a report commissioned by SaveLIFE Foundation (SLF), a non-profit organisation collaborated with Trust Law network to analyse the status of emergency medical care as a right in various jurisdictions worldwide. The studied include Australia, Brazil, England and Wales, Germany, India, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Africa, and the United States of America.

The study states that the vital statistics of India based on the Civil Registration System 2020 report stated that approximately 45% of registered deaths in 2020 occurred without any medical attention. A recent NITI Ayog study titled “Emergency and Injury Care at Secondary and Tertiary Level Centres in India” further reveals that although 91% of hospitals had in-house ambulances, only 34% of these ambulances had trained paramedics, and most hospitals lacked a pre-hospital arrival notification system.

Five aspects of medical emergency

The report identifies five aspects of medical emergency in the countries, which includes –

  • Availability of statutory right to emergency medical care.
  • Existence of separate central and state laws and or/guidelines on the right and access to emergency medical care and the way in which they can be harmonised and enforced.
  • Status of emergency medical care funding, including state, insurance and privately-sourced funding.
  • Mechanisms at the Federal and State level to regulate referrals at hospitals/trauma care centres, and established protocols.
  • Specific guidelines/regulations to address traumatic injuries on highways.

The study found that while high income countries have partial written statutes guaranteeing right to emergency medical care, their well-established trauma care access systems ensure a robust emergency response framework is available to the citizens.

On the other hand, India does not have legislative statutes guaranteeing emergency medical care as a right. However, court judgments have sought to interpret emergency medical care as a right. The said judgements, however, neither prescribe basic minimum standards for various facets of emergency medical care nor outline punitive measures for violation of such a right.

Piyush Tewari, CEO and Founder, SaveLIFE Foundation said, “Trauma care helps preserve our fundamental right to life, but delivery of such care requires a system with interlinked sub-systems and uniform standards. Such standards can very well be established without an explicit ‘Right to Trauma Care’ law but a legislation would ensure that a framework to establish such standards and systems exist with appropriate authority, accountability, and long-term sustainability.”

The report believes that establishing a statute framework could further help reduce the number of lives lost due to medical emergencies.

“The ‘Right to Education Act, 2009’ is a classic example of how legislation can spur the creation of systems to ensure that the country progresses ahead. This report documents the precedent of such actions taken by high as well as low- and middle-income countries. We hope that it will motivate a much-needed discourse amongst all stakeholders, with saving lives being at the front and centre of all discussions,” concluded Tewari.