Equipment Procurement

1. 01

   Write the specification

   Hear the people at the table and turn what they ask for into specification lines: MUST, DESIRABLE or LEAVE OUT. If a bid without it would still be safe and do the clinical job, the line is not a MUST.

2. 02

   Check the bids

   The bids are back. Check each one against your mandatory lines and shortlist or exclude it. Exclude on a true MUST only, and never guess at compliance: ask when a bid does not say.

3. 03

   Audit the whole-life cost

   Finance's draft prices every shortlisted bid over the device's life. Some figures are wrong. The trap is rarely a wrong number: it is a missing year, a missing unit or a line nobody remembered.

4. 04

   Score the bids and award

   Score each shortlisted bid against the scoring guide, set the quality/price split and award. Award the highest total among compliant bids within the envelope.

5. 05

   Sign the award report

   Choose the paragraph that explains the award to the director. A preference, a price or a person is not a reason for an award.

6. 06

   Answer the bidder's challenge

   At Expert, a losing bidder challenges the award in the standstill period. Never change the method, the prices or the bidders after the bids are in.

7. 07

   Live with the award

   The debrief scores the tender and plays out the years after the award. Buy the right device, not the cheapest one.

In the BMEssentia competency framework, this simulation builds 11 competencies across Device Technology & Fault Finding, Procurement & Technology Lifecycle, Regulation, Design & Quality, Leadership & Professional Practice.

• Device Technology & Fault Finding

  Device integration and interoperability

  Connect devices to central stations, EPR and PACS safely using HL7, DICOM and IEC 80001-1, and validate the data end to end.

• Device Technology & Fault Finding

  Medical device cybersecurity

  Assess and reduce cyber risk in networked devices: inventory, segmentation, patching, SBOM and incident response.

• Procurement & Technology Lifecycle

  Clinical needs and specification

  Turn clinical needs into a clear, testable specification with mandatory and scored requirements.

• Procurement & Technology Lifecycle

  Tender evaluation and whole-life cost

  Evaluate bids fairly with weighted quality and price, whole-life cost and clear award justification.

• Procurement & Technology Lifecycle

  Vendor and service contracts

  Manage warranties, service contracts, uptime terms and supplier performance, and enforce them with evidence.

• Procurement & Technology Lifecycle

  Commissioning and acceptance testing

  Inspect deliveries, check site readiness, test and accept equipment so only safe, complete systems go live.

• Procurement & Technology Lifecycle

  Asset management and replacement

  Keep an accurate asset register and plan replacement, obsolescence and safe decommissioning over the whole life.

• Procurement & Technology Lifecycle

  Capital projects and budgets

  Set budgets with contingency, manage programme and scope change, and report cost honestly on capital projects.

• Regulation, Design & Quality

  Medical device regulation

  Know how devices reach and stay on the market: classification, UK MDR, EU MDR, FDA pathways, CE and UKCA marking.

• Leadership & Professional Practice

  Board reporting and business cases

  Present engineering risk, performance and investment cases to directors and boards in clear, honest terms.

• Leadership & Professional Practice

  Professional ethics and integrity

  Act with honesty and independence: declare conflicts, refuse to falsify records and speak up when safety is at risk.

1. 01 Defibrillator StandardisationFoundation

   We have five defibrillator models across the hospital.

2. 02 Smart Infusion Pump FleetFoundation

   Our volumetric pumps are eleven years old and have no drug library.

3. 03 Ward Pulse OximetryFoundation

   We have about two hundred pulse oximeters across our three hospitals, of eleven different models, some older than the nurses using them.

4. 04 Ward Vital Signs and NEWS2Foundation

   Last spring a patient on one of our surgical wards deteriorated over eight hours with every observation charted on paper.

5. 05 Neonatal Phototherapy UnitsFoundation

   We are a rural hospital two hours from the nearest neonatal intensive care unit, so a jaundiced baby who does not respond to phototherapy here faces a long transfer.

6. 06 Connected Glucose MetersFoundation

   We do more than three hundred thousand bedside glucose tests a year in this teaching hospital, on meters we cannot see: no operator identification.

7. 07 12-Lead ECG Carts and ManagementFoundation

   Our two hospitals record about a hundred thousand ECGs a year on forty carts of six makes.

8. 08 Ambulatory ECG ServiceFoundation

   We fit about 4,800 ambulatory ECG recorders a year and the wait is fourteen weeks.

9. 09 Lung Function LaboratoryFoundation

   The new community diagnostic centre opens in the spring with a lung function laboratory: four workstations for spirometry, gas transfer and lung volumes.

10. 10 Bone Densitometry (DXA)Foundation

    We scan eight thousand patients a year on one ageing scanner, and the fracture liaison service is opening a second clinic.

11. 11 Video LaryngoscopesFoundation

    Last winter a patient in ED resus could not be intubated with a direct laryngoscope, and the only video laryngoscope in the building was in Theatre 1.

12. 12 Theatre Electrosurgical UnitsIntermediate

    Fourteen theatres, nine generator models, and last month a patient left Theatre 3 with a burn under the return electrode.

13. 13 Point-of-Care Ultrasound for EDIntermediate

    We scan at the bedside every shift: trauma FAST, lung, aorta, line insertion.

14. 14 ICU Ventilator ReplacementIntermediate

    Our eighteen ICU ventilators reach end of support next year and the manufacturer has stopped making parts.

15. 15 Theatre Anaesthesia WorkstationsIntermediate

    Twelve theatres, twelve anaesthetic machines, the youngest fourteen years old.

16. 16 NICU Incubator ReplacementIntermediate

    Our twenty-eight incubators are fifteen years old.

17. 17 Labour Ward Fetal MonitoringIntermediate

    We deliver 4,200 babies a year in a district general hospital.

18. 18 Point-of-Care Blood GasIntermediate

    We run nine blood gas analysers outside the laboratory: four in ICU, two in ED, two in theatres and one on the neonatal unit.

19. 19 EMG and Nerve ConductionIntermediate

    We do about 4,000 nerve conduction and EMG studies a year: carpal tunnel, neuropathy, motor neurone disease, and critical illness neuropathy on ICU.

20. 20 Intra-Aortic Balloon PumpsIntermediate

    We are the cardiac centre for a large rural region.

21. 21 Paediatric TEE ProbesIntermediate

    We do about 1,400 transoesophageal echoes a year in theatre, the cath lab and the echo lab, most of them in children having heart surgery.

22. 22 Surgical Stapler FrameworkIntermediate

    We spend nearly eight hundred thousand dollars a year on stapler reloads across eight theatres, and almost nothing on the staplers themselves.

23. 23 Pattern-Scanning Retinal LasersIntermediate

    Our diabetic eye service delivers about two thousand laser sessions a year on a single-spot laser that is fifteen years old.

24. 24 Neurosurgical Power ToolsIntermediate

    We have six neurosurgery theatres and a mix of air and electric drills, some older than our registrars.

25. 25 Digital Radiography RoomsIntermediate

    Our two general X-ray rooms still run on computed radiography cassettes, and Room 2 lost nineteen days to generator and table faults last year.

26. 26 Home Automated PD ProgrammeIntermediate

    We want eighty patients dialysing overnight at home within two years, across three counties.

27. 27 Patient Monitoring NetworkAdvanced

    Forty-eight bedside monitors for the four theatres and the recovery bays, plus the central stations and the link into the record.

28. 28 Dialysis Machines and Water PlantAdvanced

    Twenty-four stations, two shifts a day, six days a week.

29. 29 CT Scanner ReplacementAdvanced

    Our CT is twelve years old; it lost eleven days to tube and gantry faults last year, and every lost day is around forty patients rebooked and the emergency department.

30. 30 CSSD Sterilisers and WashersAdvanced

    Our sterile services department reprocesses every surgical tray for twenty-two theatres.

31. 31 Epilepsy Monitoring Unit EEGAdvanced

    We are opening a four-bed epilepsy monitoring unit for adults and children being assessed for surgery, and replacing the routine EEG systems that serve the clinic.

32. 32 Intravascular Imaging and FFRAdvanced

    In April this district general hospital starts a 24-hour primary PCI service for the first time.

33. 33 Heart-Lung MachinesAdvanced

    The new cardiothoracic wing opens next spring with four theatres.

34. 34 Intraoperative NeuromonitoringAdvanced

    We monitor about a thousand spinal and cranial cases a year on two systems that are eleven years old, with two consultant neurophysiologists for six theatres.

35. 35 Vitreoretinal and Phaco PlatformAdvanced

    We are a stand-alone eye hospital doing about fifteen hundred vitreoretinal and combined cases a year on five consoles of three different makes.

36. 36 Lithotripsy for a Stone ServiceAdvanced

    We are the stone centre for four hospitals: about eleven hundred shock wave treatments a year, plus ureteroscopy and PCNL in theatre.

37. 37 SPECT-CT Gamma CamerasAdvanced

    Our two planar-only gamma cameras are fifteen years old.

38. 38 Closed-Loop Insulin PumpsAdvanced

    We look after three hundred children and young people with type 1 diabetes, and the commissioners have funded hybrid closed-loop systems for a hundred and twenty.

39. 39 Endoscope Fleet and ReprocessingExpert

    Thirty flexible endoscopes, four washer-disinfectors, and an outbreak review last year that found a damaged channel no one had seen.

40. 40 MRI with Site WorksExpert

    The board has approved a second MRI.

41. 41 Cardiac Cath Lab ReplacementExpert

    Our two cath labs are fourteen years old.

42. 42 EP Mapping SystemsExpert

    We are a private heart hospital, and our two EP labs run about 850 ablations a year on one ageing mapping system and one on loan.

43. 43 Regional ECMO ProgrammeExpert

    The commissioners have made us the ECMO hub for a region of four million people.

44. 44 Soft-Tissue Robotic ProgrammeExpert

    The board has approved a soft-tissue robotic programme for urology, colorectal and gynaecological oncology: two systems in Theatres 7 and 8.

45. 45 PET-CT for the Cancer CentreExpert

    Our PET-CT is thirteen years old and books 2,600 FDG studies a year, rising with every new immunotherapy pathway.

• Defibrillator
• Infusion Pump
• Pulse Oximeter
• Blood Pressure Monitor
• Phototherapy Unit
• Glucometer
• ECG
• Holter
• Spirometer
• Laryngoscope
• Electrosurgical Unit
• Ultrasound
• Ventilator
• Anaesthesia Machine
• Infant Incubator
• Fetal Monitor
• Blood Gas Analyser
• EMG
• TEE Probe
• Surgical Stapler
• Retinal Laser
• Cranial Drill
• X-ray
• Peritoneal Dialysis
• Cardiac Monitor
• Haemodialysis Machine
• CT Scanner
• Autoclave
• EEG
• IVUS
• Cardiopulmonary Bypass
• IONM
• SPECT
• Insulin Pump
• Endoscope
• MRI
• EP Mapping System
• ECMO

• IEC 60601-2-24
• IEC 80001-1