NEW DELHI: Swadeshi Jagran Manch, an RSS affiliate on economic issues, has demanded that 19 categories of medical devices, used in various treatment procedures, be brought under price control.
National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority had asked for details of these devices from manufacturers and hospitals in May-June last year to probe how much profit is made on them but never made the findings public
“It is highly troubling that after coronary stents and orthopedic knee implants, no other medical devices have been brought under price control. News reports have consistently reported on the high costs of medical devices that are impoverishing patients and exacerbating their suffering,” SJM’s national co- convenor Ashwani Mahajan wrote to the Prime Minister on Wednesday.
“The data has been collected and analyzed for a range of critical devices including syringes, intraocular lenses, hip implants, cochlear implants, heart valves and various consumables. Regrettably even after 6 months have passed, the NPPA has not shared the analysis of the data in the public domain,” the SJM has written.
Previously huge unconscionable mark ups were observed for coronary stents and knee implants which led the government to cap price in the public interest, the Manch pointed out.
“Huge trade margins in numerous medical devices have been documented in repeated investigations conducted in 2011, 2014 and 2017 by the Maharashtra and Odisha state Food and Drugs Administrations,” letter to the PM also said.
Recently the NPPA has analyzed the bill of Adya Singh, the deceased 6-year-old dengue patient in Fortis hospital in Gurugram and had exposed overcharging for medicines with margins up to 900 per cent) and consumables with margins up to 1700 per cent.
The demand comes in the wake of pressure being put by some multinational medical device manufacturers to introduce a separate category of “modern and advanced” cardiac stents that can be priced higher.
The government last year had put a price cap of Rs 30,000 on all coronary stents and had called a meeting this week to review the cap.