HC notices to Centre, UP on "irresponsible" stent implants

The Allahabad High Court has issued notices to the Centre, the Uttar Pradesh government and other concerned parties on a plea seeking directions against "arbitrary and irresponsible implantation of coronary stents in patients not requiring such process".
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice D B Bhosle and Justice Yashwant Verma yesterday issued notices on the petition filed by advocate Abhinav Gaur and two others and fixed May 15 as the next date of hearing.
Citing a number of newspaper articles and reports, the petitioners have contended that doctors were "taking undue advantage of this country having no regulatory regime in the health-care sector to keep a check on arbitrary and unnecessary implants of stents".

In the petition, it has also been alleged that cath labs were "generating false angiography reports, which facilitate this evil practice by cardiologists".
The petitioners have prayed for directions to the concerned authorities to regulate the functioning of hospitals in private sector by constituting a regulatory authority and to frame regulations for external audit of every cath lab.
They have also sought the court's directions "to make it mandatory to submit the information/details of the patients, diagnosis and line of treatment to a centralised web portal" and regular and mandatory monitoring of these hospitals/cath labs by a committee.