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Managing medical equipment better

• report ( 879Kb)
• executive summary ( 54Kb)

We defined medical equipment as all medical devices connected to patients as part of their treatment and care in hospital, and medical devices used for diagnostic and laboratory purposes. It represents a £3 billion asset for the NHS that needs to be managed efficiently to provide good quality care of patients at least cost.

We found many examples of good practice in the management of medical equipment, from strategic overview, to day to day activities such as maintenance, and in the field of medical equipment safety.

But more needs to be done by trusts to manage their equipment assets effectively. Important measures include the needs:

• to allocate clear responsibility for medical equipment at board level;
• to ensure that inventory information is comprehensive and used fully in decision-making;
• to better co-ordinate the procurement of medical equipment across trusts, with more involvement of technical personnel who can also usefully contribute to non-clinical aspects of user training; and
• to take action that should help to improve standards of reporting of adverse safety incidents and to reduce their occurrence.

We found scope across the NHS in England for savings of many millions of pounds by following best practice. Benchmarking of costs and management practices may well yield benefits in lower costs, quality improvements and reduced safety risks. For example:

• medical equipment maintenance costs vary widely across similar trusts. There may be scope to keep equipment in good order and achieve savings;
• while clinical requirements dictate that a minimum number of makes and models of the same type of medical equipment is needed in a hospital, where appropriate, standardisation can save on costs, improve flexibility in the use of medical equipment for patient care, and reduce the potential for serious incidents; and
• ensuring that all users of medical equipment are properly trained to best practice standards.

From NHS Trusts, ECRI, Royal College of Surgeons, Association of Anaesthetists, British Society of Gastroenterology, National Performance Advisory Group, University of Strathclyde, key medical equipment suppliers and manufacturers.

For further information contact Tim Fry on 020 7798 7290 or email him through our enquiries desk, please mark your email for his attention.

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