ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday praised a special committee for its efforts to bring the cost of stents, and the procedure to insert them, down to Rs100,000.

Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar has taken suo motu notice of a case on reports that some public health institutions, such as the cardiac ward of the Mayo Hospital in Lahore and other government hospitals in Punjab, were placing stents in patients who did not require the intrusive procedure and were charging patients who did require stents exorbitant prices.

“It is really a miracle to bring down the cost of stents to Rs100,000 from Rs300,000,”Justice Nisar observed on Monday.

At the last hearing on Feb 8, the SC had constituted a special committee under cardiologist retired Lt Gen Dr Azhar Kiani from the Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology (RIC) to consider a set of proposals aimed at ensuring the availability of affordable and good quality stents at public and private healthcare facilities in the country.

Committee set up by apex court submits report proposing an overall cost of Rs100,000

The proposals included the establishment of a National Interventional Cardiology Board that would consist of RIC head Dr Kiani, Dr Nadeem Hayat from the Punjab Institute of Cardiology, Dr Nadeem Rizvi from the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases and the heads of Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, Bolan Medical College Hospital in Quetta, a hospital from Islamabad to be nominated by the federal government, and a nominee of the Pakistan Society of Interventional Cardiology.

The NICB would set standards and guidelines for the accreditation and operation of private and public cath labs, set qualification standards for interventional cardiologists to operate cath labs, recommend medical devices of acceptable quality for use by cath labs – including a negative list of devices, and disclose and recommend the best price available for medical devices to assist in procurement by all cath labs.

The court had also expressed confidence that stent prices would fall to a reasonable rate in two months, in such a way that same generation stents of uniform quality would be available at all public and private hospitals.

On Monday, Dr Kiani told the court that he had submitted a report proposing that the entire cost of placing stents would be within Rs100,000. He added that in India, the procedure costs $444.

The chief justice ordered the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan, the national health commission and concerned provincial departments to present their feedback on the report within 10 days.

The SC also returned a report submitted by Dr Samar Mubarakmand because it contained sensitive information on the country’s nuclear programme, and asked him to submit another report on the utilisation of funds provided to him by the government on various development schemes.

The scientist was told to resubmit his report after removing portions that deal with nuclear technology.

The court had earlier summoned reports justifying the utilisation of funds granted to Dr Mubarakmand for various projects, including the Thar coal power project, which he had promised to accomplish.

The scientist had also been ordered to submit reports on Rs37 million granted to him for the local production of stents.

The court also ordered the Sindh government to submit a report on the Thar coal power project within a fortnight, adding that the utilisation of public funds should be audited.

The scientist told the court the federal government had handed the project over to the Sindh government. The plan to produce 10MW had been running since 2005 at a cost of Rs3.7 billion, he said.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2018