World Creativity and Innovation Day is celebrated annually. In an opinion piece for the Mail & Guardian, Prof Sara Grobbelaar from the Department of Industrial Engineering writes that South Africa spends billions on imported health technology while broken equipment sits idle in public wards. The cycle is not inevitable – but breaking it will take more than good intent.
In celebration of World Creativity and Innovation Day, I want to begin this piece with something many South Africans experience: The nurse reaching for a blood pressure cuff that does not work. The patient told to return next week because the X-ray machine is down. The district hospital that received an imported or donated device that no staff member can maintain is now sitting in a storeroom.
These are not isolated incidents or unfortunate exceptions. They are recurring patterns — symptoms of a health system that spends billions on technologies it cannot effectively use, sustain, or replace, most of which are designed and manufactured elsewhere.
Medical technology encompasses any device, instrument, or tool used to prevent, diagnose, monitor, or treat illness — ranging from the most basic, such as a thermometer, bandage, or blood pressure cuff, to highly sophisticated equipment like MRI scanners, robotic surgical systems, and AI-powered diagnostic platforms.
South Africa’s medical technology landscape is characterised by deep structural dependence and systemic inefficiencies. The sector remains heavily import-dependent. Valued at an estimated R21–29 billion in 2021, the sector relies on imports for approximately 90% of its products, with the government as the primary purchaser. This dependence is mirrored across most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where up to 95% of medical equipment is imported and largely financed by international donors.
However, this model delivers limited value: the World Health Organization estimates that 50–80% of medical equipment in under-resourced health systems is non-functional at any given time. More specifically, between 40% and 70% of donated equipment remains unused due to poor contextual fit, inadequate planning, insufficient training, and a lack of maintenance capacity—effectively creating “medical device graveyards.”
None of this is radical. All of it is already visible, in fragments, within the system. The difference is whether those fragments are connected. What is required now is the will to invest in innovation infrastructure, because the cost of not doing so is paid every day by the patients waiting for equipment that does not work and the clinicians who cannot treat them because their hands are tied.
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