Bengaluru: While the Union Government is laying lot of emphasis on “Make in India”, doctors lament that not much headway has been made in the field of orthopaedic implants.
Those running orthopaedic and bone health centres claim they have to rely on costly imports as the implants manufactured in India was of low quality. This only adds to the patients’ medical bills as hospitals pass on the cost burden to them.
At Sparsh Hospital, which carries out nearly 1,000 joint replacements in a year, the average cost comes to around Rs 60,000.
“Nearly 50 per cent of the cost is for the implant. As locally manufactured ones lack quality, we have to import them from Germany or US,” said Dr Sharan Patil, Chairman, Sparsh Hospitals. There are few players in the Indian market, but their technology is outdated and cannot be relied upon, he added.
Dr Thomas Chandy, chief of orthopedics at Hosmat said, “For a fracture, we can still rely on the Indian make of plates and screws depending on the patient's ability to pay. But for knee and hip replacements the quality has not reached the stage of such high precision to let surgeons confidently use it. Hence for knee and hip replacements, we are currently using American implants.”
Luckily for Hosmat, because of the bulk imports, they have been able to get discounts from the manufacturers which they pass on to the patients.
With a manufacturing unit set up in the country, experts feel that the cost burden would come down. "The cost will definitely come down. The Indian implants are using the same designs which were there for the past twenty years, whereas American implants get innovated in every 3-5 years."
Dr Patil feels that the Government should at least provide incentives to help the sector to manufacture high quality and precision implants.
“Relaxation of customs for at least medical device implants is also helpful. The hospital electricity is also charged at commercial rates. The Government needs to micromanage now. Also, there needs to be better collaboration between different industries," he opined.
Regulation won’t help
While National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority is looking at regulating the prices of orthopedic implants, experts feel this would only increase patient troubles. “Regulate it, provided you are in a position to provide alternatives,” Dr Patil said.
