Hyderabad: A five-member expert committee has finally been formed in the state to track the patients who had faulty ASR hip implants in Telangana.
The importing company, Johnson and Johnson, had brought in the hip implant devices in 2006 to India.
There were a total of 4,700 ASR hip implants carried out in India.
The central team formed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has, so far, got only 85 complaints.
To track more patients, it was decided that State-level committees should be formed so that more patients can voluntarily come and get themselves evaluated.
The State committees have finally been formed. One committee has two orthopaedic surgeons, one radiologist and a senior official of the Drugs Control Department.
The patients are being tracked as the government is trying to get compensation for them from the company.
But the fact that a faulty implant was allowed to continue in India is not being addressed.
A senior drug control officer explained, “The compensation is to send out a message to other companies too so that they do not take Indian patients for granted. The compensation amount will be decided after evaluating the patient’s condition.”
