Patients in need of ortho-implants will have to wait for another 20 days for cheaper equipment as the Affordable Medicines and Reliable Implants for Treatment (AMRIT) outlet has missed the deadline of providing the same by May 1. The outlet officials claim that reluctance from the company dealers has slowed the process.
A committee was constituted last month to check the practice of doctors sending patients to private companies for buying ortho-implants required for surgeries like total knee replacement. It was chaired by Dr KLN Rao, head, paediatrics surgery, PGIMER.
Several meetings of doctors, official from AMRIT outlet and distributors of ortho-implants were held.
It was decided by the committee that by May 1 AMRIT will provide medical equipments required for elective surgeries like knee and hip replacement at its outlet. AMRIT officials were given some time to coordinate with the distributors of various companies.
“In April, we coordinated with distributors of six main companies but they all were reluctant in directly dealing with AMRIT. There were some issues with the agreement policy as well,” said an official from AMRIT outlet.
He added, “Hence, the PGIMER has to intervene. On April 27, a meeting was held between the PGIMER administration and the distributors. It was decided that by May 10, distributors will give us a rate list of the products and will hand over a copy of agreement to be signed and by May 20, AMRIT will finalise all the legalities and start providing the equipments.”
{{/usCountry}}He added, “Hence, the PGIMER has to intervene. On April 27, a meeting was held between the PGIMER administration and the distributors. It was decided that by May 10, distributors will give us a rate list of the products and will hand over a copy of agreement to be signed and by May 20, AMRIT will finalise all the legalities and start providing the equipments.”
{{/usCountry}}According to officials from the AMRIT outlet the rates will dip by few thousand. For instance, the rate of Total Knee Replacement (TKR), which costs Rs 1.1 lakh will come down to around Rs 65,000.
“We will be selling the ortho-implants in the next 20 days. To begin with we will provide equipments for elective surgeries and later will expand to emergency surgeries as well,” said an official from AMRIT.
AMRIT outlet has been an initiative of Union health ministry and aims to provide drugs, equipment for surgeries at heavy discounted rates than the prevailing market prices.