' 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)
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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)
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