Aborted: Hi-tech cancer therapy, robotic surgery arm

Nagpur: In a major jolt to the ambitious plan of delivering quality healthcare, efforts to procure linear accelerator worth over Rs23 crore for the cancer hospital and a robotic surgery system worth Rs20.62 crore at Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) have come undone despite several court orders. The state government had sanctioned and disbursed required funds but Haffkine Biopharmaceuticals Corporation Ltd – the agency procuring medical equipment – failed to buy and install these machines at GMCH and its auxillary unit Super Specialty Hospital (SSH).

Crores have remained unutilised for more sophisticated medical equipment, such as cardiac cath lab, eco machine with doppler, and haemodialysis machine. This came to fore after amicus curiae Anup Gilda informed the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court about the inability of Haffkine to buy this equipment on Wednesday.

A division bench of justices Sunil Shukre and justice MS Jawalkar asked the amicus, counsel for respondents and special counsel to assist it in laying mechanism to secure the sanctioned funds, set up specialised board for purchase of medicines, medical goods, consumables and equipment, and start re-tendering process. The court also sought a plan for ensuring adequate safety of health workers at GMCH, and posted the matter for Thursday.

Informing the bench about the failed missions, the amicus curiae sought court directions to secure the sanctioned funds and ask the government to spend it on procurement of robotic arm only. In the case of linear accelerator, the amicus has sought similar directives to utilise the amount on its said purpose without any diversion. The amount has been deposited with the Reserve Bank of India.

The medical education department had issued a government resolution dated December 19, 2018, approving allotment of Rs16.80 crore for purchasing robotic surgery system for GMCH. The purchase was to be made through Haffkine, which received the funds in August 2019. The process didn’t move further for the next two years. On Oct 21, 2021, the HC took note of the delay and directed to reserve the funds for the robot.

A month later, the HC set four-month deadline from publishing the tender and completing the procurement. In February 2022, the lowest bidder quoted Rs20.62 crore, which was a jump of Rs3.82 crore. The additional funds too were disbursed to Haffkine on July 13, 2022.

Though the order was placed, it couldn’t be completed as the supplier was unable to deliver non-refurbished robot with new generation equipment. On February 23, 2023, the tender process for robotic surgery system was aborted, the amicus informed the court.

The linear accelerator had received approval on March 28, 2018, and Rs23.20 crore were sanctioned for it. For 5 years, the procurement process didn’t move forward and finally Haffkine returned the money.

The amicus sought time-bound framework to procure these machines in larger interest of public.

Robotic surgery system approved and Rs16.80cr sanctioned in 2018, cost rose to Rs20.62 cr now but plan aborted, Rs23.20cr sanctioned and disbursed to procure linear accelerator at GMCH in 2018, no steps taken to buy it, unspent funds deposited with RBI.

Rs5.80cr approved for digital cath lab at SSH in March 2021. It remains on paper Rs54.32 lakh sanctioned for echo machine and Rs15 lakh for haemodialysis but Haffkine unable to complete purchases State govt failed to provide adequate arrangements for safety of health workers.