Subsidised stents cannot cure all cardiac patients, say docs at SSKM
Hardly four days to the launch of affordable stents manufactured by an Ahmedabad based company at the fair price medicine shop at SSKM hospital, cardiologists at the facility have called for the shop to stock several other types of stents by other makers to cure heart patients with multiple complications.
Hardly four days to the launch of affordable stents manufactured by an Ahmedabad based company at the fair price medicine shop at SSKM hospital, cardiologists at the facility have called for the shop to stock several other types of stents by other makers to cure heart patients with multiple complications.
Since the opening of fair price medicine shops at state-run medical colleges and hospitals across the state, the Mamata government has mandated these stores to sell stents manufactured by the Gujarat based Sahajanand Medical Technologies Pvt. Ltd at an eye-catching 67% discount on the market price. The stents are deemed a life-saving device for cardiac patients undergoing angioplasty operation.
Stents are required for cardiac patients diagnosed with coronary artery blockage. Starting on 5th June, when these devices went on sale at the fair price medicine shop at SSKM, as many as eight cardiac patients lodged at the facility have undergone implantation procedures.
“We have been drawn to the fact that the lone variety of stents currently available here can’t repair the hearts of those diagnosed with coronary artery blockage. We often have cardiac patients with diabetic or renal complications.
Given their medical condition, they need to be implanted with other varieties of stents manufactured by other companies,” said Sibananda Dutta, head of the cardiology department at SSKM.“We have asked the health department to ensure that the fair price medicine shop here has stents manufactured by other companies in stock,” Dutta said.
While the devices currently on sale have a market price of between Rs 60,000 (chromiumcobalt) and Rs 1,10,000 (drug eluting), they have going at between Rs 19,000 and Rs 36,000 at the fair price store at SSKM. Similar devices commonly in use at the top private hospitals in the city are priced at between Rs 1.20 lakh and Rs 1.30 lakh.