Hospitals raided over use of unregistered cardiac stents

ISLAMABAD/ LAHORE: The Drugs Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has on launched a crackdown and conducted several raids of Tuesday to observe the use of unregistered stents in government and private hospitals in Lahore and across Punjab.

The federal inspector of drugs conducted a raid on Shifa International Hospital Islamabad but no unregistered stents were found during the eight hours of inspection in the pharmacies, cardiac wards and catheterization laboratory.

In Lahore, an investigation team comprising of Additional Director Quality Assurance, Director Medical Devices and Deputy Director General raided the Mayo Hospital and seized five types of stents for not meeting the registration, packaging and labeling rules of the regulatory.

They also recorded statements of a cardiac surgeon, nurses and technicians. They also observed poor storage practices of medicine and stents in the hospital.

The federal drug inspector in Lahore took serious notice about apathetic storage conditions of warehouse of public hospitals. He noticed that life-saving technology unregistered stents were supplied with the consent of several consultants. This was a clear violation of the Drug Act 1976 and the case would be sent to the drug court.

The Authority has approved stents imported from US, Germany, Netherland and Ireland. Two imported and popular brands are registered with the DRAP and doctors and hospitals were advised to use only registered stents.

Last week Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had taken suo motu notice after resports of fraud in placing stents in heart patients at several hospitals in Lahore.

CJP had directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to investigate reports that the cardiac ward of Mayo Hospital and other government hospitals of Punjab were either putting stents in heart patients which were not required or charging exorbitant rate up to Rs180,000 for each stent that actually cost a few thousand rupees.