Bring down prices of cardiac stents

It is disheartening to see a substantial hike in the prices of cardiac stents amid surging inflation. The prices were hiked by 20-35 per cent in February taking the already expensive cardiac stent implantation surgery out of the reach of general people. The decision to hike the prices of the essential medical products was taken at a time when ordinary people were grappling with the growing cost of living.

After hikes, each cardiac stent costs double and in some cases more than double the costs charged in India and Nepal. In India, the price starts from Rs 9, 842 to Rs 35, 835. The Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) price-fixing committee determines the prices of the stents in our country. The DGDA this time fixed the price with an increase of 1.42 per cent. This increase includes taxes, profit margin of suppliers and dealers. It also includes an 11.5 per cent ‘retail commission’ for middlemen.

If it had ended here the price would not have been so high. The commission for physicians is more than the total of what we have already mentioned. The price would have been much lower if suppliers have not had to pay commission to physicians, health staffers and middlemen. A physician enjoys a commission of 20-50 per cent of each stent. It is completely unethical for a physician to get commissions at the cost of the lives of people.

This is a vicious cycle where common people are held hostage. Many of the patients die after they fail to bear the cost of high cardiac stent implantation surgery. This is shocking that this stent syndicate even don’t feel any prick of conscience when they charge poor people knowing that it is they who are responsible for the deaths of so many precious lives.

If physicians don’t stop this unethical income people will continue to suffer. Reportedly 45, 000 stents are implanted in about 25, 000 patients each year. How many patients do have ability to spend this hefty amount of money on stent implantation? This is one of the reasons as to why so many patients go to India for medical treatment every year. The health treatment in Bangladesh is in complete disarray with no guidelines and monitoring.

As no government body and agency oversee this issue of people’s life-and-death question ordinary people have already lost their faith in the treatment in the country. If it continues to happen, the number of patients taking treatment in India will rise depriving the country of its health care sector revenue. Ultimately the country and its people will be the loser. Only a segment of opportunist people will pocket the money.

In India the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority sets the prices of stents for foreign manufacturers while the global companies supply the stents to Nepal at discounts given the country’s poor financial condition. The government should think over the issue of stent price fixing. It should take the health issue of ordinary people seriously.

The culture of commission now is so open and random that even patients have to wait before a doctor’s chamber for a long time as there is always of queue of commission agents of various medical companies. Sometimes they even check prescriptions of patients to confirm if the physician has prescribed the medicine of his company. This is ignominious!

The government should stop this culture of commission immediately to bring back the sector to a sound footing. We hope that the government will do that in the interest of saving lives of ordinary people.