ISLAMABAD – Health experts shared good news with the Supreme Court onMonday that the locally manufactured cardiac stents — a tube shaped deviceplaced in the coronary arteries to keep the arteries open — will finallymake their way to the markets by June this year.

As our population has reportedly one of the highest risks of coronary heartdisease, with one third of all deaths attributed to cardiac arrest, it wasneed of the hour to ensure availability of stents to poor patients at lowrates and that was only possible when these are manufactured locally.

According to information shared with the Apex Court, the locally producedstents will be available to the patients at Rs 15000 for which they earlierused to pay somewhere between seventy thousand up to two hundred thousandas these available in different qualities were imported from othercountries.

So it is going to be a big relief for cardiac patients who have to undergoan expensive procedure of treatment for a prolonged period.

One issue with the imported stents was also that in certain cases it alsoemerged that substandard stents were imported and inserted in patientsputting their life at risk just to pocket more money by the consciencelesspeople.

While the local production of stents will ensure its availability ataffordable rates, the relevant authorities also need to keep a check ontheir quality by ensuring strict monitoring and check of the companiesregistered to provide the same as after all it is a matter of life anddeath for a person and those compromising on the quality should be liableto severe punishment.

Relevant laws could also be enacted for this purpose. Also the pursuit ofproviding cheap and good healthcare facilities must continue for thetreatment of other deadly diseases such as liver, as currently there is noliver transplant centre in the public sector and people mostly have totravel abroad for the expensive treatment.

One liver transplant centre was established at the PIMS but it was shutafter the failure of its first transplant surgery. We will urge the PM topersonally look into this matter and ensure reopening of the centre thatalready has necessary equipment but only needed capable surgeons and othertrained staff to run it again.