SC orders policy on unregistered stents in 10 days

ISLAMABAD: A three-member bench of the Supreme Court asked the Prime Minister Secretariat to produce a policy on unregistered stents in 10 days and submit it to the court, as it resumed hearing a suo moto case on unregistered stents on Thursday.

The Prime Minister secretariat should make a committee with feedback from all parties, the court said.

During the proceedings, the Chief Justice remarked that the case dealt with public health and so was extremely important. “The doctor or patient should not have to worry about the fact if they are using a registered stent or not,” he said.

He asked the health secretary to clarify the delay in sending a summary to the prime minister secretariat.

Speaking to Geo News, Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary Fawad Hasan Fawad said that a summary for the formation of a stent registration body had not reached the PM House. He said that it was a wrong practice to mislead the court adding that the health secretary had finalized the summary last night.

The issue of patients being operated illegal stents recently surfaced in the country after the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) exposed the mafia by sending its assistant director as patient.

These fraudsters also included some doctors at Lahore's Mayo Hospital, who would falsely diagnose people with heart issues, letting their accomplices trick them into getting surgeries.

They would sell them fake stents for up to Rs200,000, which actually cost the fraudsters Rs6,000. The swindlers even conned several patients into paying money without even placing these stents inside their bodies.

According to officials of the health department, the seized stents did not have manufacturing date, price or registration number on them.