Health care fraud: Shehbaz orders audit of all public hospitals

Report on unregistered stents presented to chief minister

LAHORE: The Punjab chief minister has ordered a comprehensive audit of all public hospital across the province in the wake of the recently unearthed scam about the widespread use of unregistered cardiac stents.

The Chief Minister’s Inspection Team submitted its investigation report to Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday at a high-level meeting held to review the cases of using unregistered stents at some government hospitals.

The inquiry report revealed that hospitals across the province were using unregistered stents endangering the lives of patients unnecessarily. Only the institutes of cardiology in Multan and Faisalabad were found to be using registered cardiac stents.

Expressing his annoyance over the sale of unregistered medical devices, CM Shehbaz pinned the blame on the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan and other healthcare departments, saying the sale of unregistered stents at public hospitals was ‘regrettable’.



Appreciating the managements of Multan and Faisalabad institutes of cardiology, the CM questioned if the two hospitals could use proper stents, why could other institutions not follow suit. He also appreciated the two hospitals for properly maintaining health and safety standards.

Shehbaz also directed the official to open pharmacies at Mayo and Jinnah Hospital’s cardiology wards to ensure availability of registered stents for cardiac surgeries. He ordered the health department to devise a mechanism to anticipate such scams within the healthcare system.

He said that steps should be taken on immediate basis to improve the capacity of the Punjab Health Department. “The government has spent billions on improving the healthcare system and to ensure people benefit from every paisa spent. A comprehensive monitoring system should be devised according to the requirements,” he was quoted as saying. “We will destroy the monopoly of unregistered stent providers,” Shehbaz vowed.

Initial investigations

The Federal Investigation Agency is expected to write to the Punjab Quality Control Board to seek permission of lodging cases against doctors, pharmaceutical companies and officials involved in the business of unregistered stents by next week.

The agency has already interrogated five cardiologists of Mayo Hospital and representatives of six stent-providing companies. None of the six companies providing stents to Mayo Hospital have yet been booked in any FIR.

The FIA has also scrutinised records of Mayo Hospital, Customs Department and the medical equipment companies. The findings have pinned Mayo Hospital’s Dr Saqib Shafi as the prime suspect.

The investigative agency unearthed the scam more than two weeks ago after a raid on Lahore’s Mayo Hospital, where they found several unregistered stents. It was alleged that substandard, expired and unregistered stents were being used in angioplasty surgeries and patients were being overcharged for the cheap devices. The Supreme Court has also taken suo motu notice of the scandal and proceedings are under way.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th, 2017.