SJM wants govt to issue guidelines for angioplasty services

Benefit of price reduction of coronary stents should not be curtailed by increasing charges of proceedures, an RSS body today said while appealing to the government to also issue guideliness for angioplasty services.
The Swadeshi Jagran Manch, an RSS-affiliated body, while welcoming the reduction in prices of stents, also called for introduction of free angioplasty services in government hospitals including at the district level.
Seeking guidelines in this regard, the body felt that the benefits of price reduction should not be curtailed by increasing charges of procedures or through unwanted insertion of stents.
"SJM demands that the Government, especially the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, take necessary steps to introduce standard treatment guidelines for angioplasty and other cardiovascular diseases to protect patients from commercial exploitation," the Manch's national co-convener Ashwani Mahajan said told PTI.

He said the availability of stents at affordable price also opens up the possibility to offer free angioplasty services in public sector hospitals.
"The Central Government and the state governments can procure stents at lower prices than the ceiling price through efficient bulk procurement mechanisms.

"SJM calls upon the Central and state governments to take measures to introduce angioplasty facilities in all district hospitals in order to offer free angioplasty services," he said.
Welcoming the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority's (NPPA) order that fixes the celling price for Bare Metal Stents (BMS) and Drug Eluting Stents (DES), SJM said ceiling on the price on sale of stents brings great relief to patients by bringing down the price to less than one third of the price they currently pay.

Mahajan said the ceiling prices on BMS and DES also brings a level playing field for Indian stent manufactures to compete with foreign manufactures. "We congratulate the Government of India for this bold step," he said.
SJM has advocated fixation of ceiling price at affordable rates and had written to Chemicals and Fertilizers Ministry and the Chairman of the NPPA in this regard.
The RSS-affiliated body had urged the government to stop overpricing of coronary stents and make overall healthcare more affordable to patients.
In a letter to Union Ministry of Pharmaceuticals, the SJM had alleged that prices of stents sold in the market are inflated and government should intervene to fix the prices and break the nexus among hospitals, companies and cardiologists.