Centre undertakes massive medical equipment maintenance drive

The Centre has undertaken a massive exercise for the maintenance of dysfunctional medical equipment in hospitals across the country and has repaired one-fourth of them so far.
The "Biomedical Equipment Management and Maintenance Programme" was launched after a government survey pegged the cost of dysfunctional equipment in hospitals in the country at a staggering Rs 1015.74 crore.
The Centre has prepared guidelines for the implementation of the programme in states and is also providing them financial support under it.
In 11 states, where the maintenance exercises has been undertaken, dysfunctionality rate has come down by 25 per cent, which means that a fourth of the poorly-maintained tools and machines have been repaired, a statement released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.

A mapping exercise in 29 states and 29,115 health facilities was undertaken at the insistence of the ministry. And, more than 7.5 lakh equipment costing nearly 4,500 crore were found not functioning properly.
The percentage of poorly-maintained equipment in various states range from 13 to 34.