Cheaper ones of poor quality, they're told

NEW DELHI: Illiterate 63-year-old Madan Lal (name changed), who does piece work for export garments, was told by the doctors in GB Pant Hospital that the reason for his chest pain was blockage in the coronary arteries, for which he would require cardiac stents.

They said it could cost over a lakh.

With his daughter's marriage just three weeks away, he decided to make do without the stents as he could not afford the expense of the stents and the heavy expense of a marriage in the family too. "What can I do?
I have decided to just take the medicines meant to thin the blood. I will see about the stents after the marriage. Maybe, I will just have to live with the chest pain till it claims my life," he said despondently. While not everyone might be as poor or illiterate as Madan Lal, a large number of patients who come to GB Pant Hospital are poorly informed and not afflluent. Being one of the most renowned cardiology centres, hundreds throng to the out patient department in the hope of getting trustworthy quality treatment that's "cheaper than the private sector". However, many patients are forced to buy expensive stents directly from dealers instead of being given the cheaper stents stocked by the hospital.

Head of cardiology Dr VK Trehan claimed that patients demanded the `higher quality', more expensive stents and were willing to pay more for it. However, talking to patients waiting to get an angioplasty done revealed that most had no clue about the different brands. Many even believed that all stents were made by the same company but priced differently according to quality. They believed the doctors who told them that the cheaper stents were of poorer quality.

A large number of patients came from neighbouring states like Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. "I was told that the Rs 42,000 stent is imported and of better quality and that I would have had to pay much more in a private hospital since I would have to pay for the doctor's consultation, procedure etc, which are all free here. So I decided to opt for the Rs 42,000-stent," said a patient's attendant.

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