In view of large number of complaints in the purchase of equipment in the Government hospitals, the State Government is planning to introduce a new and comprehensive equipment procurement policy. The State Government had received many complaints like overbilling and purchasing the equipment for the hospitals which do not had the required technical staff to operate them.
The present procurement policy formulated in the year 2009 envisages two equipment purchase categories. In the first category equipment worth Rs1 lakh and above are kept while in the second category equipment less than worth Rs1 lakh are kept. For the category I a certification of ISO 9000 series and equivalent is needed while for category II certification of ISO 9000, ISI or VIS is required. For purchase of equipment the medical health department has a 12 member purchase committee headed by the DG Health services. This committee is authorised to purchase equipments worth Rs25 lakhs and for purchases worth more than Rs25 lakhs approval from Government is required.
The equipments are to be procured after the clearances from the technical committee and demonstration committee who are headed by director stores of Medical and health department. The firms supplying the equipments are required to be registered with the industries department and sales tax department of their respective states. The firm supplying the small equipments, surgical material, and medical literature should have an annual turn over of more than 50 lakh for last three years while for technical equipments and medical vans the firms should have annual turnover of Rs5 crores.