On behalf of the medical fraternity Delhi based National Medical Forum released a statement condemning the remarks by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at phoolpur public meeting where he condemed the medical profession as a whole.
The press release issued last evening said that the medical profession would like to congratulate the government for unprecedented activity in reducing the cost of stents and providing benefits to the large number of patients and saving them from undue exploitation of the industry distributors and the hospitals.
However, despite of the fact with the pricing of the stents is being decided by the companies and the hospitals and the fact that medical practitioners has no role in deciding the price, it seems like in the entire process, medical practitioners have been unnecessarily projected as villains as if the profession was benefiting from the high pricing.
Even the NPPA in its report states that it was the manufacturers/distributors as well as hospitals who were profiteering from abnormally high profit margins on Coronary artery Stents and not the medical profession.
At this juncture, the remarks by the honorable Prime Minister at phoolpur public meeting where he is condemning the medical profession as a whole and showing them in very low esteem is not expected and not highly concerning to the profession.
The release said, “We would like to bring to your notice that at one point, government has decided to bring this life saving device under the ambit of National List of essential Medicines and to cap the upper limit of the price to make these life saving devices available at a cheaper price, however, on the contrary the government still continues to charge various taxes on the said stents, which further increase the cost of the device to the patient. We request the government to remove the stents from the ambit of taxes.”
The National Executive Committee of the Cardiological Society of India met recently on the 19th February 2017 at Indian Heart House, Kolkata and unanimously resolved the following:
“We take strong objection to the derogatory remarks against Cardiologists appearing in certain sections of the media. The Cardiological Society of India strongly believes in ethical medical practices and will ensure the public that it is always committed to improve cardiac health (saving lives and reducing disability) of Indians. Instead a lauding the efforts of the Interventional Cardiology community towards reduction in mortality (saving lives) and morbidity (reducing the disability) a patients with heart disease, these articles portray doctors as crooks and villains. We plead to these media to act responsibly before casting unfounded aspersions.”
Dr Prem Aggarwal, President, National Medical Forum said, “ On behalf of the medical profession and the millions of patients, we request the government to kindly continue their efforts in the right direction for affordable medical treatment for all and do not denigrate the medical profession and this would hamper the doctors patient relation and create a atmosphere of suspicion that would remain for your to come.”
