Nearly one-third of cost of setting up a hospital goes into purchase of medical equipment. Medical equipment is expensive to own and maintain too. However, like any other equipment they may need to be disposed-off at some time. The right way for disposal of used medical equipment varies with reasons for doing so. There are three main reasons why a hospital needs to dispose-off their used medical equipment.

Medical technology today is advancing by leaps and bounds. The medical equipment industry has investment into R&D. It benefits from advances in electronics, IT, biotechnology, genomics, proteomics, molecular sciences, material sciences, radiology and many other fields. More and more tasks in medical equipment are being automated and equipment now have ability to handle much more complexity, improved performance, efficiency and accuracy.

There is constant endeavour towards making diagnostic and treatment modalities less or non-invasive as well as safer for patients. Therefore, advances in technology also mean faster obsolescence. Physicians and surgeons demand cutting-edge medical equipment and an upgrade every now and then, necessitating disposal of existing equipment which may still be working well.

Equipment still in working condition need not be dumped altogether. They could be sold to another end-user. Very often hospitals in smaller cities are looking for pre-owned medical equipment to save costs. The reason is in smaller centres patient volumes and paying capacities are low. Therefore they work with severe budgetary constraints. Such medical centres are not looking for cutting-edge or newest, feature-rich equipment either. What they need is well-established equipment that can carry-out most common procedures well without any problems.