Faulty stents: CJP expands scope of cardiac fraud case

Top judge had originally taken notice of issue on January 17

ISLAMABAD: The chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) on Saturday widened the scope of the suo motu case regarding cardiac care fraud, serving notices to the law officers and health secretaries of all four provinces. CJP Mian Saqib Nisar also fixed the hearing of the case for February 1.

The CJP originally took notice of the fraud on January 17 following reports that some hospitals in Lahore were either unnecessarily placing stents in cardiac patients or charging patients up to Rs180,000 for each stent, which actually cost not more than a few thousand rupees. The reports also stated that in many cases, stents were not even implanted in patients, but the hospitals charged them for bogus angioplasty.



The Federal Investigation Agency, meanwhile, uncovered that several hospitals in Lahore were selling fake or expired cardiac stents following a raid at the Mayo Hospital. Some government-run hospitals in the city were also implicated in the scandal.

Following the FIA investigations, the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) sealed the office of a multinational company and seized unregistered as well as expired cardiac stents last Sunday.

Subsequently, the FIA and DRAP extended their investigations to other cities, including Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Karachi and Peshawar.

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