No transparency in selling medical devices: DG of DNCRP

Staff Reporter :
Director General (DG) of Consumer Rights Protection Directorate. H. M Safikuzzaman on Sunday said, there is no transparency in selling medical device in Bangladesh.

He said this device is not a product like rice, lentil and salt, it is a life saving product. There needs to be more clarity here.

The DG said this while speaking at a seminar organized in collaboration with the members of the Medical Device Importers Association of Bangladesh as the chief guest.

The event was aimed at selling heart pacemakers and valves and other equipment at a fair price according to the law.

The seminar was organized in the meeting room of the head office of the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection.

The DG said the price of medical equipment used in the treatment of heart disease is fixed by the Directorate of Drug Administration.

“When we took the import information of these products from Bangladesh Bank, we found that there are equipment whose prices range from 30 dollars to 7 thousand dollars.

In this case, it is necessary to see whether a device is imported for 30 dollars and sold for 3 lakh Taka,” he said.

The DG said, “We have not done much work on this sector (sale of medical devices). Consumer interest and public health are involved here.

So today we have organized a seminar on this issue. It is necessary to know the import price of these devices and how much they are being sold.”

A. H. M Safikuzzaman also said that these medical equipment are imported from the same countries from which India imports them.

But the price of these devices in our country is two-three times higher than India. It is necessary to see why this difference in price.

He said, we conducted a raid on an institution 15 days ago in view of the complaint that the price of various medical devices including heart pacemaker, valve, ring is being kept high.

In the expedition we found several disturbances in that institution.

Among those deviations, the price of a device is 70 thousand rupees higher than the price fixed by the Department of Medicine Administration.

Also many expired devices are kept with new devices.

Also carbon copy is not used in sales vouchers. As a result, we did not get how much the devices are being sold, he added.

Abdul Jabbar, Assistant Director of DNCRP, among others also spoke at the event.