The donations given to hospitals in developing countries help the authorities to procure the right medical supplies with the latest technologies. But the growing concern is that these donations are doing more harm than doing well. More often when the equipments are out of use, the local staff is not able to fix them due to the lack of knowledge. These equipments just lie in a huge pile. Also, since most of the hospitals don’t receive more than one grant/donation, the outdated machine keeps spitting huge power bills and maintenance costs.
Recently there was as study on few hospitals on Haiti, and it was found that almost 30% of the hospital medical supplies were donated after the 2010 earthquake and currently half of them are out of order. It was also found that few devices like incubators for babies didn’t even work in the hospitals as they require a high power supply, which was absent in that area.
The WHO estimates that about 80% of world hospital medical supplies are funded or donated through a foreign aid, but actually about only 10-20% of those donations are ever put to use. The question is not how effectively can you donate, but how effectively can you make these donations work, especially for those poor countries where it really matters. WHO also adds that there are organizations who blindly donate without ever noticing the needs of the hospitals in these deprived areas. Delivering a high end technical machine will do no good, in areas where even the power requirement is high above the standard. So WHO advises, that the organizations should understand the need of recipient hospitals and countries. They also need to examine that the recipients have access to the right supplies to make the equipments work properly. Subsequently, training programs should also be given along with a demonstration, shipping and delivery. There are hundreds of things which organizations can do to make sure the help they are giving, reached to the right person. Simply donating blindfolded doesn’t help.
Currently WHO has laid major principles for effective donations of hospital medical supplies. These are to respect the recipient’s request, assure that the donation will benefit the recipient, keep the lines of communication open at both the ends and ensure a good quality is maintained. However, these principles have not been updated since 2000. Even today, there are many authorities who neglect these principles and donate just to evade tax and build an impression. There are also some loose ends at the recipient’s end as well, there are hospital authorities who sell the donated equipments to the grey market and earn personal gains out of it, showing a false report that the equipment was never received.
Today, some reputed medical authorities are adding more responsibilities on not just the donators but also on the recipients. They are making efforts that the donations work effectively. There are medical supplies training programs which teach the recipients to assemble and fix the equipments at the time of need. This is all done under the supervision of the medical authorities.