J&J hip implant case: Govt asks states to form committees

In a fresh development in the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) faulty hip replacement system issue, the Union health and family welfare ministry has issued letters to all states to set up committees that would undertake the task of identifying the affected patients and refer them to the central committee. The panel would, in turn, review the applications and decide the amount of compensation.

In a letter dated August 30, the Ministry of Health has written to all state health secretaries to take action.

State departments have been asked to form panels comprising two orthopaedic surgeons or physical medical rehabilitation experts from a government medical college and hospital, one radiologist from the government hospital, and a representative from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation’s zonal office. The drugs controller of a state would be the member secretary of the committee .

The states would bring out advertisements in newspapers so that affected patients can approach the committee or the concerned state drugs controller. While a total of 4,700 surgeries were conducted in India using J&J subsidiary, DePuy’s ASR hip replacement system, only 882 patients (accounting for 1,056 ASR hip replacement systems) could be traced through the ASR Helpline. DePuy established a reimbursement process and ASR helpline for Indian patients through Puri Crawford, insurance surveyors and loss assessors, in September 2010.

The government sources said, “The main task at hand is to identify affected patients and then determine the degree of compensation.” The letter stated the ministry of health had formed a committee under the chairmanship of Dr Arun K Aggarwal, former dean and professor of ENT, Maulana Azad Medical College, Delhi, to examine the issues related to faulty ASR hip implants manufactured by DePuy International, UK.