Some private hospitals in Maharashtra reselling catheters: FDA

Some private hospitals in Maharashtra have been found to be reselling catheters that are used to clear obstructions or dilate a narrowed canal, duct or blood vessel as support devices in angioplasty procedures.

At least eight private hospitals in Maharashtra reused about 1,306 catheters for more than 1,000 patients, charging the patients as much as 77 per cent of the retail price, according to a report by the Maharashtra Food and Drugs Administration (FDA).

The report by the drug regulator has found that private hospitals in Mumbai's suburbs of Mulund, Vashi and Andheri were also selling catheters to patients for almost 200 per cent to 300 per cent of its cost.

While reuse of catheters is neither ethical nor advisable there are no legal provisions to stop the offence and hospitals can continue with the practice with impunity, says the FDA.

FDA officials said the report has been forwarded to the licensing department of BMC after they found that a distributor of guiding and balloon catheters has a storage centre in Kandivli that functions without a licence.

The MRP of a balloon catheter ranges from Rs20,000 to Rs28,000 while a guiding catheter costs anywhere between Rs5,000 and Rs10,500. Health officials said while reusing a properly sterilised device is not an offence, charging patients more than three-fourth of the cost of a new device is unethical, for sterilising a device for reuse costs just 10-20 paise apiece.

''A number of medical devices are cleaned up and sterilised using ethylene oxide two to five times before being reused. However, since the liquid is inexpensive, the cost of sterilisation is negligible,'' reports quoting doctors said.

The report found that Fortis Hospital Mulund, Hiranandani Hospital Vashi, Sahyadri Hospital Pune and Kamal Nayan Bajaj Hospital Aurangabad were selling the products at high rate, reusing the product and charging the patients on reuse.

BSES Hospital Andheri, Wockhardt Hospital Nagpur and Platinum Hospital Mulund didn't charge patients on reuse.