Medical Technologies Procurement, Management and Maintenance in Developing Countries: The Case of Health Challenges in Africa

Biomedical technologies are the basis of a functioning health system, in particular, medical devices are essential for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment of diseases. However, while developed country hospitals are renewing their fleet of machines by divesting large quantities of biomedical equipment annually, there is a chronic lack of biomedical technology in developing countries to support clinical activities, which could be met by the reuse of used equipment, adapted to the new hospital environment. However, even if the donations of biomedical technologies are generally made with good intentions and not-profit making as in the case under study, obtained results are not what we expected also due to a not perfect communication between donors and recipients and a lack of culture about technology maintenance in the developing countries. At the moment, there is little documented evidence to support these statements. For this reason, the aim of this paper is to quantify the donated medical equipment that are out of service in two different hospitals in Benin. The information was collected on the type of communication existing between donors and beneficiaries and on the type of support that donors provide in terms of staff training, manuals and maintenance. It was observed that more than 50% of the donated equipment is not functional. In addition in more than 70% of the cases the donors do not support the beneficiaries nor training sessions and staff formation are provided. An in-depth assessments of beneficiary structures should be carried out and all donations must be accompanied by initial user training and monitoring by donors regarding the functionality of the system. Donors-beneficiaries communication results as a key elements in the management of health technologies in low-income countries.