Hospitals Face Challenges in Maintaining and Repairing Medical Equipment

The Director General of Medical Equipment and Supplies at the Food and Drug Organization, pointing to challenges facing healthcare centers in repairing and maintaining medical equipment, stressed the need to facilitate hospitals' access to specialized services.

According to the report of Ambassador Arjan, quoted by Ifdana, Ali Alizadeh, in the second conference of medical equipment managers of medical schools and universities of the country, which was held on the sidelines of the Iran Fashion 2026 exhibition, said: medical equipment failure and delay in supplying spare parts can disrupt the provision of medical services. Even some devices covered by warranty may suffer technical defects and remain out of service for a while if there are no parts or access to specialized services; An issue that is more important in centers with a limited number of devices.

He added: Basic maintenance of medical equipment and access to repair and support services play an important role in the continuation of the activity of medical centers. Strengthening communication between medical universities, hospitals, medical device engineers and after-sales service providers can also reduce device downtime.

Director General of Medical Equipment and Necessities of the Food and Drug Organization pointed out the importance of refurbishing the existing equipment and stated: Providing the field for the activities of qualified companies in the field of repair and refurbishing, while reducing the cost of providing new devices, helps to make optimal use of the existing capacities and return the equipment to the service cycle faster.

He said about the measures taken to facilitate the after-sale services of medical equipment in war conditions: In this situation, the possibility of providing after-sale services for some equipment after the end of the warranty period was provided by qualified companies and with the selection and approval of the relevant medical equipment engineer, so that the process of repairing and maintaining the devices can be done more quickly and the costs of medical centers can be reduced.

Alizadeh announced plans to develop medical equipment repair and restoration services in different regions of the country and said: In this model, the specialized capacities of companies in the provinces are identified and strengthened so that for the repair of each device, it is not necessary to transport it to Tehran and the required services are provided in the nearest possible region.

He continued: The implementation of this program is dependent on the identification of equipment eligible for restoration, evaluation of the technical capabilities of companies, determination of the mechanism for monitoring the repair and restoration process, and ensuring the quality of the devices' performance after performing the services. Fulfilling these requirements can reduce transportation and repair costs and shorten equipment return to service cycle time.

The Director General of Medical Equipment and Necessities of the Food and Drug Organization emphasized: Medical equipment restoration services are followed in compliance with technical, regulatory and quality requirements in order to maintain the safety of patients and the quality of medical services in addition to increasing productivity and cost management.

Emphasizing the cooperation of the Food and Drug Organization, universities of medical sciences, medical equipment engineers and specialized companies, Alizadeh noted: Effective use of existing capacities and strengthening cooperation between different departments can help improve the process of repairing and maintaining medical equipment and providing more stable and faster services to medical centers and patients.

He emphasized: The development of specialized services for repairing and renovating medical equipment, strengthening technical capacities in the provinces and monitoring the quality of the performance of the devices are among the important axes of improving the maintenance of equipment and managing the costs of medical centers.