Medical equipment in Kenya does not usually fail because it was badly made. It fails because nobody serviced it, nobody calibrated it, and the fault that could have been caught in a fifteen-minute inspection was left until it became a board replacement. Planned maintenance is the cheapest money a facility spends.
What a maintenance schedule actually looks like
| Equipment | Routine checks | Service interval |
|---|---|---|
| Autoclaves and sterilizers | Daily door seal and chamber check, weekly cycle test with indicators | Every 6 months, plus annual validation |
| Operating tables | Weekly hydraulic and lock check, monthly castor and brake check | Annually |
| Theatre lights | Monthly arm balance and lamp check | Annually |
| Patient monitors | Weekly probe and cuff inspection, monthly alarm test | Annual service and NIBP calibration |
| Oxygen concentrators | Weekly gross filter wash, monthly output check | Every 6-12 months, sieve bed as advised |
| Suction machines | After every use jar cleaning, weekly vacuum test | Annually |
| Laboratory analysers | Daily controls, weekly maintenance cycle | Annual service and calibration |
| Centrifuges | Monthly rotor and lid interlock check | Annually, with speed verification |
| Weighing scales | Quarterly check against a known mass | Annual calibration |
| Hospital beds and trolleys | Monthly crank, castor and brake check | Annually |
What it costs, and what not doing it costs
An annual service visit for a small clinic covering autoclave, scales, BP equipment and a couple of monitors is a modest line item. A single analyser board, a replaced autoclave chamber gasket assembly, or an operating table hydraulic rebuild is not. The economics are not close, and that is before counting the clinical cost of equipment being out of action.
The pattern we see repeatedly is a facility that spends well on capital equipment, allocates nothing to maintenance, and replaces items in year four that should have lasted a decade. Budget maintenance as a percentage of equipment value from the day of purchase, not as an emergency expense when something stops.
Calibration and why inspectors ask about it
Calibration is the documented proof that a measuring instrument reads correctly. Scales, thermometers, BP equipment, centrifuges, analysers, autoclave gauges and radiation equipment are all measuring instruments. If you cannot produce a calibration record, the reading is not defensible, and in an inspection or an incident review that matters.
- Keep an equipment register. Every item, serial number, purchase date, warranty expiry, service date and next due date. A spreadsheet is enough.
- Label each item with the date of last service and next due. It is the only way ward staff will notice.
- Record daily and weekly checks in a log at the point of use, not centrally.
- Keep autoclave cycle printouts or indicator strips. These are the records inspectors ask for most often.
- Do not let warranties lapse unnoticed. Diarise the expiry when the equipment arrives.
The things that shorten equipment life fastest in Kenya
Power quality is first. Surges and brownouts kill analyser and monitor boards, and a UPS or stabiliser costs a fraction of the board it protects. Second is water quality in autoclaves: feeding tap water into a machine specified for distilled water will scale the chamber and heater within months. Third is dust and humidity, particularly on optical equipment. Fourth is simple neglect of consumable parts, filters, seals, tubing and probes, which are cheap to replace and expensive to ignore.
Planned maintenance contracts
We service and calibrate the equipment we supply, and we take on maintenance for equipment bought elsewhere. A contract typically covers scheduled visits, calibration with certificates, priority response on breakdowns, and a written condition report you can put in front of an inspector. Details are on the maintenance service page, with repair and installation handled separately.
Questions we are asked most often
How often should medical equipment be serviced in Kenya?
Annually as a baseline for most items, every six months for autoclaves and oxygen concentrators, and daily or weekly user checks in between. Measuring instruments need documented calibration at least annually.
Do you service equipment we bought elsewhere?
Yes, subject to parts availability. Tell us the make, model and serial number and we will confirm before scheduling.
What does a maintenance contract include?
Scheduled visits, calibration certificates, priority breakdown response and a written condition report per visit.
Do you cover facilities outside Nairobi?
Yes. We schedule county visits and can cluster several facilities in a region into one trip to keep costs down.