NEW DELHI: The Health Ministry Thursday approved the formula for determination of compensation for patients who prior to August 2010, had received faulty articular surface replacement hip implants manufactured by the Johnson and Johnson.
The government had constituted a central expert committee under the Chairmanship of Dr RK Arya, Director, Sports Injury Centre, to determine the quantum of compensation.
The central expert committee after holding five meetings prepared a formula for determining compensation for the ASR victim patients, which has been approved by the ministry.
“The government today accepted the formula prepared by central expert committee, paving the way for patients to secure compensation from M/S Johnson & Johnson Pvt Ltd in days to come.
“Compensation will be paid in a time bound manner through bank accounts of affected persons by M/S Johnson & Johnson Pvt Ltd,” a statement from the ministry stated.
The compensation payable to patients will be determined in terms of the disability by the faulty hip implants in raletion to their age, it said.
Those between 20 to 35 years would get compensation between Rs 58.08 lakh and Rs 49.66 lakh for 20 to 30 per cent disability; Rs 77.63 lakh to Rs 69.41 lakh for 30 to 40 per cent disability; Rs 100.17 lakh to 89.32 lakh for 40 to 50 per cent disability and Rs 122.71 lakh to Rs 109.15 lakh over 60 per cent disability, according to the statement.
It said those between 35 to 60 will get a compensation between Rs 49.66 lakh and Rs 33.63 lakh for 30 per cent disability; Rs 69.49 lakh to Rs 44.45 lakh for 30 to 40 per cent disability, Rs 89.32 lakh to Rs 57.26 lakh for 40 to 50 per cent disability and Rs 109.15 lakh to 69.08 lakh for over 60 per cent disability.
Those above 65 will get of 30 lakh for 20 to 30 per cent disability, Rs 40 for 30 to 40 per cent ability, Rs 50 lakh for 40 to 50 per cent and 60 lakh for over 60 per cent disability, the statement said.
Earlier, the ministry had asked states and union territories to form committees to examine cases of affected patients and to make the process less arduous for them.
These committees were directed to send their recommendations to the central expert committee.
The states and union territories had also been asked to make people aware through newspaper advertisements so that they could approach either the central committee or state level committees.
In a report earlier, an expert panel had suggested that the firm pay compensation of around Rs 20 lakh to the affected patients.
The report was made public after patients demanded that it be put in the public domain.
The committee in its report stated that “the ASR hip implants manufactured by DePuy International Ltd were found to be faulty which resulted in higher instances of revision surgeries globally including India”.
The report recommended DePuy International Ltd, a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson, be made liable to pay at least Rs 20 lakh to each affected patient, and the reimbursement for revision surgeries should continue until August 2025. PTI
