Medical appliances for resource-constrained settings

The report examines how unreliable electricity and the use of medical equipment designed for high-income countries undermine healthcare in Sub-Saharan Africa. Based on data from 29 facilities in Kisumu County, Kenya, it finds that many essential devices are underutilized or non-functional due to power instability, high energy consumption, and a lack of maintenance. It argues for the adoption of energy-efficient, context-aware medical appliances and decentralized renewable energy systems to improve health outcomes and reduce operational costs.

• Healthcare facilities in Kisumu County, Kenya, suffer from significant power instability; nearly half of the 29 surveyed grid-connected facilities experience outages at least once a week, with over 50% of those outages lasting more than seven hours.
• Diesel generators are the primary backup power source in the studied facilities, but they are often unsustainable due to high fuel costs, frequent breakdowns, and lack of maintenance.
• There is a critical mismatch between medical equipment design and the realities of resource-constrained settings; approximately 45% of visited facilities reported that available medical appliances were unsuitable for use.
• Donation practices often exacerbate equipment failure, with up to 70% of donated medical equipment in low- and middle-income countries remaining unused because it is broken or unfit for purpose.
• Direct measurements revealed that actual power consumption of medical devices often deviates from manufacturer ratings, with deviations ranging from -45% to +56%.
• Power outages are the leading cause of medical appliance damage (66%), followed by a lack of effective maintenance.
• Inefficient medical appliances increase operational costs and can lead facilities to ration equipment use; for example, some facilities only sterilize instruments biweekly to control energy bills.
• Oxygen concentrators were identified as the most energy-intensive appliances in the study, consuming an average of 7.3 kWh per day.
• Local innovation in Africa is hindered by bureaucratic hurdles and government procurement practices that prioritize imported equipment over local solutions, as seen in the case of the 'Pumuaishi 3.0' ventilator.
• Transitioning to decentralized renewable energy (DRE), such as solar PV with battery storage, can reduce the cost of installing energy systems by 25% when paired with energy-efficient medical devices.

APA

Bolo, E., Hacker, S., Lazopoulou, M., & Ojwang, C. A. (2025). Medical appliances for resource-constrained settings. Sustainable Energy for All. https://www.seforall.org/system/files/2025-07/SEforALL%20report-medical-appliances-resource-constrained-settings.pdf

Chicago

Bolo, Emily, Siena Hacker, Marilena Lazopoulou, and Concepta Atieno Ojwang. Medical appliances for resource-constrained settings. Sustainable Energy for All, 2025. https://www.seforall.org/system/files/2025-07/SEforALL%20report-medical-appliances-resource-constrained-settings.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Bolo |first1=Emily |last2=Hacker |first2=Siena |last3=Lazopoulou |first3=Marilena |last4=Ojwang |first4=Concepta Atieno |title=Medical appliances for resource-constrained settings |publisher=Sustainable Energy for All |date=July 2025 |url=https://www.seforall.org/system/files/2025-07/SEforALL%20report-medical-appliances-resource-constrained-settings.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{bolo2025medical, author = {Bolo, Emily and Hacker, Siena and Lazopoulou, Marilena and Ojwang, Concepta Atieno}, title = {{Medical appliances for resource-constrained settings}}, institution = {Sustainable Energy for All}, year = {2025}, month = jul, url = {https://www.seforall.org/system/files/2025-07/SEforALL%20report-medical-appliances-resource-constrained-settings.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }