Controversy hits cardiac stents procurement for hospitals.

Byline: Asif Chaudhry

LAHORE -- The Punjab government's policy for the central procurement of cardiac stents for public hospitals has been hit by a controversy after the committee of senior medics constituted for the purpose failed to implement the official policy for procurement of the stents against the approved rates, Dawn has learnt.

The issue surfaced when three out of the eleven public sector cardiac hospitals of the province made procurement of expensive cardiac stents of various categories through respective 'institutional tenders' while some others raised objection to violation of uniform policy.

The government had constituted a central purchase committee (CPC) to initiate the process in July this year for the central procurement of the specific category of cardiac stents and surgery devices for financial year 2019-20.

Headed by Punjab Institute of Cardiology Chief Executive Officer Prof Dr Saqib Shafi, the committee comprised of Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology (RIC) CEO retired Maj Gen Azhar Mehmood Kiani, Jinnah Hospital cardiology unit head Prof Dr Zubair Akram, Wazirabad Institute of Cardiology (WIC) Executive Directive Prof Dr Abdul Waheed and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi Institute of Cardiology (CPEIC) Multan Executive Director Prof Altaf Rana.

From the government side, the procurement specialist of Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Department Punjab Tayyab Farid and Section Officer Engineer Abdul Jabbar Bajwa were also members of the committee.

Three hospitals go for 'independent' procurement at high cost; govt body fails to implement policy

According to the official documents, the committee had received demand of procurement of 17,000 budget stents from the 11 cardiac institutions of the province through the central procurement. Of the total, the PIC Lahore had sought 7,500 stents, RIC 1,000, Faisalabad Institute of Cardiology (FIC) 2,500, RIC 1,000, CPEIC Multan 2,000, WIC 500, Mayo Hospital Lahore 1,400, Jinnah Hospital Lahore and Bahawalpur Victoria Hospital 1,000 each and the Shaikh Zayed Hospital Rahim Yar Khan 400 stents.

After a couple of initial meetings, the committee had approved the rate of Rs33,335 (per stent) when one of the participating firms - The Ferozsons Laboratories Ltd - offered the last price.

The single category 'FDA (Food and Drug Authority, USA) approved 'budget stent' of higher classification was to be purchased for all the 11 cardiac institutions/centres as per the government policy.

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