Govt moves to fix prices of syringes

New Delhi: Cracking a whip on private hospitals and syringe manufacturers, the government has decided to cap the prices of consumables items --- syringes. The move has been initiated after it came to light that Fortis Hospital charged over 1,700 per cent more for consumables that were used on a dengue patient.

According to sources, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has asked all stakeholders, including syringe manufacturers, importers, to provide the 'actual cost' of syringes and profit margin on a single unit.

"The decision in this regard was taken during a recently held meeting with all stakeholders, including NPPA officials. The meeting was called to discuss pricing formula of syringes after NPPA found that the private hospitals are rampantly violating drug pricing laws and inflating treatment bills," the sources said.

"At the meeting, syringe manufacturers 'supported' NPPA's move of fixing the syringe prices, while importers opposed the initiative. Manufacturers were in the view that government must 'consider a workable margin' prior to finalising the price of consumable items," the sources said, adding final decision in this regard would be taken after a few more meetings.

"The government is committed to provide affordable healthcare to all and such practices need to be stopped at earliest. As NPPA has already fixed the prices of coronary stents, cost of syringes would also be controlled to avoid Fortis like incidents in future," a

senior official in the government said. Notably, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) in its report stated that the hospital charged Rs 200 for some brands of disposable syringes, which were procured by the hospital for just Rs 15.29, which is a blatant violation of the pricing law. The report had further highlighted that the family was charged around Rs 350 for bed bath towels and wipes, which was procured at Rs 33.60 by the hospital. The hospital had made a 942 per cent mark-up on consumable items, the NPPA report had stated.

As per the DPCO 2013, the retailers are 'permitted' to

16 per cent mark-ups for scheduled drugs, which was violated by the hospital.