The Government of the Netherlands, in collaboration with the Technical University of Delft (TU Delft), is spearheading efforts to address the growing issue of medical device graveyards in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including Kenya.
This initiative aims to reduce the waste and inefficiency caused by unused medical equipment in various major hospitals across the country.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), up to 70 per cent of medical equipment in LMICs end up in ‘graveyards’ unused, this is often due to incompatibility with local infrastructure, lack of maintenance capabilities, and inadequate training for healthcare workers. This issue contributes significantly to the inefficiency and waste found in medical facilities in these regions.
During a briefing with Kenyan journalists at TU Delft, Dr. Roos Oosting, Assistant Professor in Biomedical Engineering for Global Health, emphasized the importance of tackling this problem. “We are committed to significantly reducing the medical equipment graveyard in Kenya and other middle- and low-income countries,” Dr. Oosting said.
She referred to a research conducted by WHO in 2017, which revealed that 40-70percent of available medical equipment in LMICs remains unused. “While this data was collected a few years ago, we believe these numbers remain accurate today,” she added. “This means that much of the equipment already in hospitals in these regions is sitting idle and underutilized.”
Dr. Oosting, who works within TU Delft’s Department of Biomedical Engineering for global health, reiterated the university’s goal to shift this narrative, by designing medical devices that work in the local context, increasing the bioengineering capacity locally and ensuring medical devices are compatible with the conditions and resources available in LMICs.
“We at the department of biomedical engineering and faculty of mechanical engineering our goal is to change this number in hopefully in the next decade, “she explained.
Speaking at the same event Prof. Jenny Dankelman who is a Professor of Minimally Invasive Surgery and Intervention Techniques at TU Delft, said that in order to counteract the surging numbers of dumped equipment, the Technical University of Delft was now offering free courses to increase capacity among the Kenyan biomedical engineers, these courses will hopefully equip them with the know-how on operating and maintaining these medical devices.
“We offer online courses specifically designed to train medical equipment technicians in hospitals to maintain and repair equipment. As we have observed, many hospitals are burdened with medical equipment graveyards, and we are trying to remedy that. We believe it is crucial to have local experts who can manage and maintain these devices effectively,” she explained.
She added, “Around 13,000 learners are already enrolled in these courses, which will have a far greater impact than what I can achieve teaching here at the university.”
This initiative aligns with a broader global movement towards sustainable healthcare systems that focus on local capacity building, training, and the development of robust maintenance networks for medical equipment.
This initiative by TU Delft stands as a testament to the growing international recognition of the challenges posed by medical device graveyards and the urgent need for solutions that are tailored to the unique needs of countries like Kenya.
In Kenya, over 90 per cent of medical devices are imported, these devices were not built for the Kenyan context, instead were meant for clients in high income settings/countries, and this has also been identified as a contributing factor to medical devices graveyards experienced in major hospitals like Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH).
According to PHD candidate at Delft, Karlheinz Samenjo Some donated medical devices are designed for high-resource settings and require reliable electricity and skilled technicians for operation and maintenance some of these requirements may not be available in Kenya. This is why it is important to increase capacity for biomedical engineering and encourage medical device innovation locally.
“These medical devices are not designed for us s it is therefore important that we spark local innovation in the local medtech communities to create medical devices in Kenya,“he explained.
He also highlighted the importance of building local capacity to design and develop medical technology that is suited for the unique conditions in Kenya and Eastern Africa. By establishing partnerships with local universities, TU Delft aims to foster innovation that can not only addresses the issue of medical device graveyards but also help to make healthcare more affordable and sustainable in the region.
“The skill to develop technology and medical devices is still lacking, and therefore the goal of our partnership with the University of Nairobi (UON) and Kenyatta University (KU) is to set up a program to address this. Our goal isn’t just to develop technology in Kenya but to develop technology for Kenya that works in Kenya and Eastern Africa. This way, the 90 per cent of medical devices considered obsolete every one or two years can be reduced, and healthcare can become more affordable,” Samenjo explained.
TU Delft through their global initiative have also partnered with Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) to improve on equipment management.
