Question : Dysfunctional Medical Equipment

Will the Minister of HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE be pleased to state:

(a) whether a large number of existing medical equipment in public health facilities across the country is dysfunctional or unutilised, if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor, State/UT-wise;

(b) whether the Government proposes to allocate special funds in this regard, if so, the details thereof along with the special funds sanctioned and released thereunder; and

(c) the other corrective steps taken/ proposed to be taken by the Government to ensure optimum utilisation of medical equipments in public health facilities in the country?

THE MINISTER OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE
(SHRI JAGAT PRAKASH NADDA)
(a): There is no published report to support such a finding. However, from primary data collected in 10 districts in five states, the status of dysfunctional medical equipment was observed as below:
Bihar upto 43%
Uttarakhand upto 36.11%
West Bengal upto 57%
Karnataka upto 30%
Madhya Pradesh upto 68.57%

(b): Public Health being a State subject, under the National Health Mission (NHM) support is provided to States/UTs to strengthen their health care systems including support for medical equipment maintenance through agencies based on the Programme Implementation Plans submitted by the States/UTs. This support is provided within the resource envelope of the NHM for the State and no additional special funds are being allocated.
(c): States have been asked to carry out facility wise mapping of equipment/machinery and identify the non-functional ones, ensure condemnation of unusable equipment /machinery and plan interventions for comprehensive equipment maintenance for all functional medical equipment/machinery under support from NHM. The Ministry has developed and released ‘Bio-Medical Equipment Management and Maintenance Programme guidelines that that inter alia include model contract documen