New Delhi: The central government is facing pushback from Indian device makers over an order that prunes the list from last year of refurbished medical devices allowed to be imported into the country, but still contains a large number of life-saving equipment already being made in India. Manufacturers hold that the order undermines the Make in India initiative, the local medical device industry, and patient safety. In an office memorandum (OM) issued on 15 October, reviewed by ThePrint, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has revised the list of refurbished equipment that can be imported by hospitals and it now contains 38 high-end and high-value machines.
It includes magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines, computerised tomography (CT) scanners, mammography mammography systems, radiotherapy machines, and high-end X-ray and robotic surgical systems, among others. While the decision was based on consultation with the Director General of Health Services (DGHS) in the Union health ministry, the OMs were issued by the MoEF&CC since the import of used devices is also considered a potential environmental hazard. A similar OM issued last year contained 50 devices and drew protests from the Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMeD), an umbrella association of Indian medical device manufacturers, for the same reasons.
“It’s disappointing that despite our pleas for reviewing the order issued last year, the government has just reduced.