Questioning claims of corporate hospitals that imported stents are better, a group of doctors today alleged these hospitals have formed a "grand alliance" to subvert the Centre's recent decision to cap prices of lifesaving stents.
Alliance of Doctors for Ethical Healthcare (ADEH) said the decision by National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) to cap the prices of lifesaving stents will hit the profits of these hospitals which were absolutely "unethical and criminal".
ADEH also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure that the decision is implemented without any obstacles by such people and the compliance is ensured, saying if foreign companies are refusing to supply the stents to Indian hospitals, then there is a need to give full support to Indian companies to increase their production.
"ADEH questions the claims of the corporate hospitals that the imported stents were in anyway better than the ones manufactured in India.
"The corporate hospitals seem to have formed a grand alliance to subvert the revolutionary decision of the NPPA to cap the prices of life saving stents as it will hit their profits which were absolutely unethical and criminal and are doing medical corruption," G S Grewal and Arun Mitra of the core committee of the ADEH said.
Thegovernment recently had slashed prices of stents by up to 85 per cent by capping them at Rs 7,260 for bare metal ones and Rs 29,600 for the drug-eluting variety.
ADEH said that it was after a long drawn struggle that such an order has come into force after advocate Birender Sangwan had filed a PIL in court that the hospitals have been charging exorbitantly, sometimes over 1,000 per cent on the price of stents.
The court passed an order in 2015 asking the government to cap their prices but the government not only slept over this but even thought of dissolving the NPPA, they said.
Thereafter an appeal was filed in the court for action against the government for not complying with the order as a result of which to avoid the contempt notice by the court the government asked the NPPA to cap the prices before March 1, 2017.
"There was no scientific evidence or paper presented anywhere which proves the claims that the imported stents were better than those manufactured in India.
The "bogey of imported stents" was being created by the corporate hospitals and some cardiologists only to mislead, misguide and confuse the common people and the government in the country.
"The corporate hospitals which were running the medical profession for purely commercial interests were trying to subvert this decision. It is pertinent to note here that the Indian stents have got approval from the US FDA which means that they are at par with other stents and can be sold even in the USA," the body said.
It said that the issue of newer high-end stents being
raised by some cardiologists and corporate hospitals is only to "scuttle" the price capping.
"The clause 15 of the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) clearly states that any manufacturer should apply about the new product with evidence for its superiority to fix the ceiling price. Moreover, the capping has not affected the companies but the profit margin of the parties involved in the supply chain," it said.
Noting that the doctors across the country had welcomed the NPPA decision, ADEH said only the select few for whom the profits matter more than affordable health care for the common masses, are "crying wolf" without any reason or scientific evidence.
ADEH also expressed shock that Indian Medical Association has not come out with an open stand on this issue.
