Hyderabad: New body to monitor upkeep of medical equipment in hospitals

Hyderabad: For the maintenance of medical equipment in all government and private health facilities, the State government is to set up a programme management unit (PMU) in the office of Telangana State Medical Services and Infrastructure Development Corporation (TSMSIDC) and recruit biomedical engineers to repair and service the equipment.

As medical equipment plays an indispensable role in health service delivery, its availability and upkeep are one of the key interventions for ensuring access to diagnostic and therapeutic services in hospitals. The TSMSIDC managing director (MD) has submitted a proposal for streamlining the medical equipment maintenance processes and to have a better system for timely maintenance and reducing the down-time.

After examining the proposal, the government passed a GO approving the modalities for medical equipment maintenance in all government health facilities. It sanctioned Rs 17.47 crore as additional funds as a one-time release towards payment of pending due under head-of-account.

The medical equipment in hospitals is to be classified into four categories¬¬ - A equipment costing above Rs 5 lakh and under warranty Comprehensive Annual Maintenance Contract (CAMC) yet to commence, B equipment costing above Rs 5 lakh also requiring company maintenance for which CAMC need to be signed post-warranty, C equipment costing above Rs 5 lakh whose age is more than seven years both warranty and CAMC exhausted and in working condition, D equipment costing below Rs 5 lakh.

The maintenance of equipment of categories A, B, and C will be taken up by the TSMSIDC. For category D the maintenance will be taken up by respective hospitals. According to the State Health Secretary, the MD of TSMSIDC will enter into annual maintenance contract (AMC) and Comprehensive Maintenance Contract (CMC) of all major equipment centrally. The TSMSIDC will be responsible for periodic maintenance as well as repairs of equipment in categories A, B and C through the mechanism of warranty and AMC/CMC.

The GO said the staff would be recruited on outsourced basis. They include biomedical engineers having more than 10 years of experience and data entry operators with computer working skills. The government announced salaries to be paid to the staff who will be working at the PMU.

Moreover, the software is to be developed by the MD of TSMSIDC called Medical Equipment Maintenance Information System (MEMIS) for online raising of requests for repairs by superintendents of hospitals, for tracking or resolution and closing requests by PMU after they are addressed.

The MD will be completing this exercise in a time frame of one month. The expenditure for the development of the software will be met from TSMSIDC funds, the order says. A committee is to be set up with members, including the Director of Medical Education, Technical Advisor of Health and Family Welfare department, Vice-Chancellor of Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS), Commissioner of Telangana Vaidya Vidhana Parishad (TVVP) and MD of TSMSIDC to finalise the price of maintenance of each item under category C, taking consideration the rates of maintenance of comparable equipment in various government and private hospitals.

 WHAT'S IN STORE …

♦ Biomedical engineers to be recruited for work

♦ A committee is set up to finalise price of maintenance of each item

♦ Medical Equipment Maintenance Information System (MEMIS) software to be developed for online raising of requests for repairs by superintendents of hospitals