Kerala government contemplating centralised purchase of cardiac cath lab consumables

The State government is contemplating moving to a system of centralised and standard purchase process for cardiac cath lab consumables for all cath labs in the State’s public health sector by purchasing these consumables directly from medical devices firms through the Kerala State Medical Services Corporation (KMSC).

At a high-level meeting convened by Health Minister Veena George on Wednesday, it was decided that a uniform and standard procurement process for cardiac consumables was required so that the distributors are not allowed to hold the government to ransom on a regular basis, threatening to disrupt the cardiac procedures in public sector hospitals by stopping the supply of cardiac consumables.

The government has asked the KMSC to draw up and submit the tender documents for the same within a week.

The Director of Medical Education (DME), superintendents of all government medical colleges, and the district/general hospitals with cath labs under the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) have been asked to provide all details regarding the average requirement of cardiac consumables in each institution, the procedures usually done and the present procurement policies so that the KMSC can clearly assess the State’s requirement before entering into discussion with medical devices firms.

Given the huge annual requirement of cardiac consumables in the State, the government should be able to make direct purchases from medical devices firms at a much lower rate, it is believed.

“At present, individual hospitals are purchasing cardiac consumables through various distributors. The bills of these distributors are cleared as and when the government releases funds for the same. We have 14 cath labs under the DME and another 10 under the DHS. On an average, at least 15 procedures are done six days a week in each cath lab and you can just assess the huge volume of cardiac procedures that are done in the State’s public sector every year,” K.V. Vishwanathan, DME, said.

“It is true that there is a backlog in payments to the tune of crores in each institution because of the huge volume of cardiac catheterisation procedures Kerala is doing, especially under the Karunya Arogya Suraksha Padhati (KASP). We have been negotiating with the distributors continuously for part payment of bills so that there is no disruption in the supply of consumables. However, the government reckons that the Chamber of Distributors of Medical Implants and Disposables crossed a line when they “forcibly” took away the cardiac consumables stocks from the Kottayam Government Medical College the other day, “creating a scene.” This was unprecedented,” Dr. Vishwanathan said.

Ms. George earlier went on record to state that the distributors had “a clear agenda” to demean and portray the government in a bad light, when they had earlier agreed during negotiations that they would not disrupt the functioning of cath labs in government hospitals. She alleged that the distributors had even tried to meddle with the government’s attempts to purchase cardiac consumables through HLL Lifecare.

The government has now issued an order sanctioning ₹250 crore to the State Health Agency for part payment of pending bills under the KASP, so that the immediate crisis can be resolved. At present, the government owes over ₹1,200 crore to various public hospitals as reimbursement for free treatment given under the KASP.