Lahore: The administration of Punjab Institute of Cardiology involved in implantation of expired Stents in Patients. Allegedly, about 100 plus expired stents implanted on the direction of Head of department Prof.Dr Saqib Shafi.
Stents that expired in the months of May, June and July 2021 have been revealed to be implanted in patients.
According to the details: the stent, which expired on May 14, 2021, was implanted to a patient named Riaz on July 7 and a patient named Sadat Nawaz on June 5. The stent, which expired on July 17, was implanted on August 4 to a patient named Muzaffar. Similarly, the stent which expired on May 19 was placed on a patient named Naeem Shehzad on May 28. The stent, which expired on June 13, was inserted on June 15 to a patient named Syed Arshad.
Similarly, 133 stents expiring in May, June and July have been revealed to be put in patients. Notices were issued to the company several times by the former MS but the company did not withdraw the overdue stents.
According to sources, the presence of expired stents was reported to the head of the institute, Professor Dr Saqib Shafi, but instead of returning the expired stents, he kept them in the angiography store and instructed the Dispenser to insert the expired stents in the patients.
According to sources, a committee was formed by the Chairman Board of Management on August 28 to find out the truth of this immoral and illegal act and submit their report with-in three days.
Professor of Cardiology, Associate Professor of Cardiology, Assistant Professor of Cardiology, AMS HR, DMS Store / Pharmacy and Chief Pharmacist are the members of committee.
According to sources, the inquiry committee recorded the statements of on duty dispensers at the Angiography Store. One of them revealed that “he was allegedly instructed by the Head of Department Prof.Dr Saqib Shafi to keep the expired Stents in store and issue for implantation”.
On condition of anonymity, an official of the hospital management revealed that the company concerned offers a bribe of millions of rupees to the head of the institute for inserting expired stents, which is mostly accepted and expired stents are inserted in patients.
According to sources, the inquiry committee has been asked to check the data of the stents which implanted to the patients from January 2021 to August 2021, however, no decision has been taken on whether the data of the stands will be checked or not.
According to sources, the hospital’s main disposable store has 213 expired “Resolute Onyx” stents which have been notified to the company for replacement but no action has been taken by the company so far.
Remember, the same scam was happened back in 2017 at Mayo Hospital Lahore and that time same Prof Dr. Saqib Shafi was the head of cardiology department.
