 "Johnson & Johnson")
The Centre is learnt to be working overtime around the compensation modalities for the patients affected by faulty hip implants manufactured by US-based Johnson and Johnson’(J&J’s) subsidiary DePuy.
The central government committee, set up for identifying patients and recommending a compensation plan, will hold its first meeting on September 18, a senior official said. While J&J has in principle agreed to compensate the recipients of faulty implants, the government is keeping its options open. That is, in case the firm does not agree to comply with the recommendations of the central and state committees on compensation, the government will file a public interest litigation, the official said.
As hundreds of patients remained untraceable after their implant surgery between 2006 and 2010, the government issued a public notice recently asking patients to register with the state-level committees. These panels are chalking out a standard operating procedure to evaluate the level of disability caused to patients. “We need to fix the criteria for testing so that there is uniformity in determining the disability for compensation,’’ the official said. The base compensation will be Rs 2 million, but it can go higher depending on the disability caused.
Although the number of patients who have responded to the public notice is still low, the central committee, headed by Dr R K Arya, director at Safdarjung Hospital’s sports injury centre, will begin the process around compensation work at next week’s meeting.
