Avinash Azad
Early Times Report
Jammu, Mar 1: State Level Committee constituted by Governor's administration to examine the number of patients suffering in J&K due to faulty hip implants sold by Johnson and Johnson Pvt Limited could not serve its purpose, as after lapse of eight weeks, no authority has been designated to register the cases of victims.
Principal Secretary to Government, Health and Medical Education Department Atal Dulloo vide Government Order No.09-HME of 2019 on 7th of January 2019, constituted a State Level Committee to determine the quantum of compensation in respect of faulty "Acetabular Surface Replacement (ASR) hip implants" manufactured by M/s DePuy International Limited (now M/s Johnson Pvt Ltd) and implanted in J&K State.
"Till date we have received complaints from two persons i.e. one from Valley and another from Jammu. Certainly, the number of patients suffering with faulty ASR hip implant sold by Johnson and Johnson is very high, but the government has played 'vague' game in this case", said one of the member of SLC, and added that no person/authority has been designated to deal with the cases.
They said that the SLC was comprising of Dr Khursheed Ahmad Kangoo, Professor Orthopaedics, Government Medical College Srinagar Chairman, Dr Narinder Kumar Sharma, Professor Radiology, Government Medical College Jammu, Dr Majid Jahangir, Professor Radio Diagnosis and Imaging, Government Medical College Srinagar, Dr Sanjeev Gupta, Professor, Orthopaedic Government Medical College Jammu and B K Samantray, representative of Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) are the members of the Committee and Lotika Khajuria, Controller Drugs and Flood Control Organization J&K as the Member Secretary of the Committee.
"All the members of the committee are engaged in their other works also, they can provide their expert advice for compensation to the patients", said a member and added it was not possible for them to register cases, as it has not been mentioned in the constitution of the committee.
"We don't have exact figure of persons who went through hip implants, but unfortunately, there is no platform established by the Governor to identify the victims' except constituting this committee", they said and added certainly here are many cases, where complications developed following use of faulty hip implants.
Principal Secretary to Government, Health and Medical Education Department Atal Dulloo when contacted, instead of accepting poor planning on the part of department said that people can approach Controller Drugs and Food Control Organization J&K.
However, ridiculing his response sources said that all BMOs of state should collect the information about people who have used these faulty implants and submit a report to Health and Medical Education department, after consultation with the masses.
"Otherwise, the step taken by Governor's could not serve its purpose", they added. |
