Probe on Rs 29-crore orthopaedic implants lying unused at 14 medical colleges

MUMBAI: Orthopaedic implants of worth Rs 29 crore has found lying unused at 14 government-run medical colleges. With the shocking revelation being made, in this regard, a four-member committee comprising FDA commissioner and senior doctors has been formed to investigate the matter.

TOI reports that the implants had been obtained by the state in bulk in July 2016 to make it available to patients for free or at a subsidized cost.

Less than 1 percent implants have been used nearly after a year of delivery to the medical colleges found the state medical education department.

A senior Mantralaya official told TOI, "We want to find out why doctors placed orders in such huge volumes if there was no real requirement or intent to use them. The process of procurement will also be looked into."

The four-member committee headed by FDA commissioner Pallavi Darade including Dr Prakash Wakode, joint director of Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER), head of KEM's orthopedic department Dr SK Srivastava and Pradeep Deshpande of DMER has been told to submit its report regarding the case within a month.

As per the requirements put forward by all medical colleges, for the first time DMER had purchased stainless steel and titanium implants in bulk from Sharma Pharmaceutical Pvt Ltd, a Gujarat-based pharma firm.

In April, TOI had reported the matter of decaying implants in hospital storerooms while the doctors complained that the instruments required for fitting the implants like crucial nuts, bolts, screws, e.t.c were in a state that it becomes impossible to locate them during emergency surgeries. whereas nurses maintaining store inventory at several hospitals had refused to watch over the thousands of implants.

The orders of GT hospital also came as a surprise to the inspection team as it had ordered double the amount asw compared to JJ Hospital, consisting of implants worth Rs 2.5 crore, but did not perform as many surgeries. "Some colleges purchased stock that could last them for a decade and yet they are not using any," the official told the daily. The first inquiry into implant purchases was ordered at the beginning of the year. "The report was rather soft," the official told TOI, explaining the need for a second independent committee.