Every used medical device we sell arrives needing work before it can be used clinically. That is not a caveat we bury, it is the normal condition of the entire second-hand market, and understanding it is what separates a good purchase from an expensive one.
Here is what typically has to happen, and who is responsible for it.
1. Electrical safety testing
Any mains-powered medical electrical device should be safety tested before it goes into service. For medical equipment this is usually done to IEC 62353, the in-service and after-repair testing standard, rather than ordinary office PAT testing. It checks earth continuity, insulation resistance and, importantly, patient leakage current, which standard PAT does not.
Whose job: yours. Either your own clinical engineering or EBME department, or a contractor. Budget for it before you buy, because it applies to every unit regardless of who sold it to you.
2. Functional verification or calibration
Safety testing tells you the device will not hurt anyone electrically. It does not tell you the readings are right.
Anything that measures needs verifying against a known reference: NIBP against a pressure simulator, SpO2 against a simulator, ECG against a patient simulator, incubator and water bath temperatures against a calibrated thermometer, centrifuge speed against a tachometer, pipettes and dispensers gravimetrically.
Whose job: yours, and it is the step most often skipped. A monitor that powers on beautifully and reads 8 mmHg low is worse than one that does not switch on, because you will trust it.
3. Decontamination
Equipment coming out of a clinical environment should be decontaminated before transport, and again before use. For reusable surgical instruments and endoscopes the relevant UK framework is HTM 01-01 and its companion guidance, and reprocessing needs validated equipment, not a wipe down.
We clean externally and describe what we have done. We do not claim to have validated-reprocessed anything, because we do not have a validated decontamination facility, and saying otherwise would be exactly the kind of claim this business exists not to make.
Whose job: shared. We handle transport-safe cleaning. Clinical-grade reprocessing is yours.
4. Servicing and consumables
Check before buying, not after: are service parts still available, does the manufacturer still support the model, does it need proprietary consumables, and can you still get them. A device that is unsupported and needs a discontinued cartridge is scrap with a plug on it.
5. Documentation and your asset register
Whatever you buy needs adding to your device inventory with model, serial number, acquisition date and the date of its safety test, so planned maintenance picks it up. MHRA guidance on managing medical devices is the reference point for how organisations are expected to handle this.
We supply a full VAT invoice with every order and can provide serial numbers and any service labels or records that came with a unit. Where no service history exists, we say so rather than implying one.
What this costs, roughly
For a typical benchtop or ward device, a safety test plus basic functional verification is usually a modest cost against the saving of buying used, often well under a hundred pounds if you have in-house engineering. For complex systems, and anything requiring manufacturer commissioning, it can be substantial. Find out which case you are in before you commit, not after.
The honest summary
Buying used medical equipment saves a great deal of money and is completely routine across the NHS and private sector. It also transfers a set of responsibilities to you that buying new does not. Any seller who does not tell you that is either inexperienced or hoping you will not ask.