' In some developing countries, up to 50% of the medical equipment is unusable at any given time. In some hospitals, up to 80% of their medical equipment is inoperative... '
(World Health Organization, WHO)



Preface
The last fifteen years I have worked as a biomedical technician, consultant and trainer in six diverse developing countries. All these countries were very different, but the problems in the hospital workshops were similar:

    no spare parts for repairs and maintenance
    no technical manuals
    poorly or no trained biomedical technicians
    no (financial) support by the responsible authorities
    no technical support from the manufacturers
    lack of awareness of the advantages of preventive maintenance

Appropriate training for hospital technicians and simple equipment for hospital workshops would improve the situation easily. But unfortunately most countries still have not recognized the importance of the repair and preventive maintenance of hospital equipment.

I hope that this website can be a little support to all biomedical technicians in developing countries.
Here you find:

     all the documents about biomedical technology I have collected
     all the user and service manuals I have
     all training courses that I have developed and have held


About this site
www.frankshospitalworkshop.com is a private and noncommercial website which can be used for self-study. It is a collection of documents, experiences, best-practice procedures and teaching and learning materials about biomedical technology.


Acknowledgement and apologies
Thank you to all who actively support my website by providing documents and information. Special thanks to all the companies who allowed me to provide their equipment manuals. To those companies who do not want their documents to be made public I apologize and I will delete the material immediately upon request.


' On the average almost 80% of the medical equipment in government hospitals are not functioning and the number even reaches 98% in dispensaries in some regions. '

(Ministry of Health, Tanzania, 2008)