5 months, 24 deaths in P’kula Cath Lab

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 18

Terming it worrisome, Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij has sought a report from the state Health Department on the 24 deaths in five months in the catheterisation laboratory (Cath Lab) that he inaugurated on December 11 last year in Panchkula Civil Hospital, the country’s first government hospital to get a National Quality Assurance Certification (NQAC).

Tests and procedures like ablation, angiogram, angioplasty and implantation of pacemakers are carried out in a Cath Lab.

Vij said “we set up these Cath Labs for providing cheaper services. If there are deficiencies, we will remove these”.

The state government has set up Cath Labs in five government hospitals, including at Ambala Cantonment, Faridabad and Gurugram, in the public-private partnership (PPP) mode in collaboration with Kerala-based Meditrina Hospitals.

While Haryana provided the building and pays for the electricity and water supply, Meditrina Hospitals has installed the equipment and deployed doctors and paramedics.

Patients can go directly to the Cath Lab or through reference of government doctors, but the facility is supposed to charge fees authorised by the government. 

Dr Rajiv Wadhera, Senior Consultant in the Department of Medicine in the Civil Hospital, who heads the team of doctors conducting the “deaths’ audit”, said of the 24 deaths since the lab was opened, nine occurred after angioplasty, 12 before cardiac procedures could be performed and one each died post-pacemaker installation, during procedures and for other reasons.

During this period, the doctors in the Cath Lab examined 3,000 patients in the OPD and performed 661 angiography and 331 angioplasty procedures.

Dr Sanjeev Trehan, Principal Medical Officer, said the Panchkula hospital being NQAC accredited, audit meetings were part of the standard operating procedure.

Dr N Prathap Kumar, chairman of Meditrina Hospitals, however, said the Cath Lab was providing the best of healthcare services at the lowest possible cost. “Deaths do occur in a cardiac centre, but there was no deficiency in service on part of the Meditrina staff,” he claimed.

Meanwhile, the Health Department has also sought reports of deaths in Faridabad, Gurugram and Ambala Cantt Cath Labs.

‘Over-charging’ under lens

Following complaints of overcharging, the Health Department also plans to take up a financial audit of the Panchkula Cath Lab. Sources said as per the MoU signed by Meditrina Hospitals with the government, it was to charge 69 per cent of the CGHS rates for different procedures from patients.

However, the Cath Lab displays the rate of Echo test as Rs 982 against the approved rate of Rs 335 for 2-D and Rs 445 for 3-D tests.

“The MoU provides that consumables will be included in the procedures, but the patients are being made to pay through the nose in the name of additional consumables. Even pathological tests are being referred to outside labs against the spirit of the MoU,” alleged a senior doctor in the Health Department.

Refuting allegations of overcharging, Dr N Prathap Kumar said the Echo tests being performed in the Cath Lab were Doppler tests that cost more.

BAMS DOCTORS performing duty IN ICU?

Doctors with a degree in Ayurveda have been deployed in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Cath Lab, a fact admitted by Dr Rajiv Wadhera, Senior Consultant in the Department of Medicine in the Civil Hospital. Dr N Prathap Kumar, chairman of Meditrina Hospitals, however, refuted it.