ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Saturday directed the authorities concerned that locally manufactured coronary stents should be available in the market by May 2018 at any cost.
A three-member SC bench, headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, was hearing a suo motu case of substandard stents fraud in cardiac ward of hospitals.
On the last hearing, Dr Murtaza, head of the stents production project, had told the court that the product would be available in the market by June and it would cost patients only Rs15,000.
The court also directed attorney general to submit within a week the audit report of Rs37 million handed to Pakistani scientist Dr Samar Mubarakmand for the production of the stents.
The apex court also ordered Dr Samar Mubarakmand to submit a written reply within a week about issuance of the amount to him.
Dr Mubarakmand, who was summoned by the apex court in the last hearing, informed the court that a project worth Rs37 million was started, while he was the chairman of the National Engineering and Scientific Commission (NESC).
He said that under the project, 10,000 stents were to be manufactured locally, out of which 400 were manufactured and sent to Germany for testing.
To a court query as to where the stents are now, Dr Samar replied out of the Rs37 million, the machine used for manufacturing stents alone cost Rs30 million, while the rest was spent on salaries of experts and other expenses.
He said that after his retirement, the project was handed over to NUST [National University of Sciences and Technology].
The Supreme Court (SC) also directed the federal government to examine the proposals given by the National Interventional Cardiology Board (NICB) and give its input on the next date of hearing.
In pursuance of the court’s direction during the course of hearing of the instant matter, Ali Raza, representing the Society of Cardiologists, submitted that a National Intervention Cardiology Board (NICB) has been constituted, consisting of the heads of the interventional cardiology of public sector tertiary Cardiac Institutes.
He informed the court that the board would consist of Head of Interventional Cardiology of Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology (RIC), Punjab Institute of Cardiology, NICVD, Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, Bolan Medical College Hospital, Quetta, Head of Interventional Cardiology as nominate by the federal government and nominee of Pakistan Society of Interventional Cardiology (PSIC)
The counsel submitted that the functions of NICB would be to set the standards and guidelines for accreditation and operation of Cath Labs in Pakistan both public and private, to set the qualification standards for Interventional Cardiologists to operate Cath Labs, recommending the medical devices of acceptable quality for use of Cath Labs including negative list of devices.
He said that the Board would also approve the terms of reference and selection of independent private operator of cardiac registry of Pakistan and oversee its operations besides formation of necessary subcommittees and peer committees to include interventional cardiologists from public and private sector institutions.
The counsel requested that the federal government should notify the National Interventional Cardiology Board.
The court then directed Waqar Rana, Additional Attorney General to examine the proposals given by the NICB and after getting its input, submit a comprehensive report by next Thursday.
Earlier, during the course of hearing, head of Dr Azhar Kiani, Head of Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology (RIC) and other doctors appeared before the court. The court had asked them to hold a meeting and discuss the issue and then come up with proposals.
The chief justice remarked that after disposing of the matter relating to improving the conditions of public sector hospitals by provision of adequate medical facilities, the court would also look into the hospitals in private sector.
The CJ said that provision of basic healthcare falls in the fundamental rights of the public, hence the apex court could examine the health facilities being imparted to the public in private hospitals as well as examining the fees structure.