E-Procurement of Medical Laboratory Equipment: Experiences from a Tertiary Care Oncology Center in India

Patient outcomes and healthcare delivery are directly linked to the availability of calibrated, well-functioning, and quality laboratory medical equipment.[1] Quality assurance in medical laboratory is also directly dependent upon the equipment.[2] In low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), indiscriminate procurement methods among others are responsible for nonfunctioning of 40 to 70% of the medical equipment.[3] Public procurement amounts to almost 20% of the gross domestic production of India.[4] The Government e Marketplace (GeM) is an online public procurement platform launched in the year 2016 by Government of India with an aim to create a transparent procurement portal for government organizations.[5] GeM has various advantages including (i) ease of purchase, (ii) transparency, and (iii) time bound delivery of goods. However, procurement of medical devices and equipment is a critical issue and has its own challenges.[6] Our hospital is an upcoming government tertiary care oncology center with dedicated departments of oncopathology, transfusion medicine, transplant immunology, and microbiology. All the departments are being equipped with advanced state-of-the art medical equipment. We wish to share the issues identified and their possible solutions based on the experiences of e-procurement of medical laboratory equipment through GeM for our hospital.