Impact of COVID-19 on Bio-medical Equipment Supply Chains

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic had a huge impact on health care systems around the globe. It exposed several major hospital supply chain vulnerabilities, including hospital medical equipment supply shortages such as protective personal equipments (gloves, goggles, respirators), diagnostic equipment (cartridges for RT-PCR automatic systems) and clinical care equipments (pulse oximeters, concentrators, ventilators). The medical entities such as equipments that were supposed to help control the spread of the disease and to limit its damage ran out of effectiveness due to the lack of proper equipment supply chain at the peak of the pandemic. COVID-19 caused an enormous negative effect on the chains. Globally, as the situation worsened due to pandemic, there were various disruptions in the equipment supply chain. There were several causes that attributed to the increase in demand and slowing of the supply. After COVID, work towards strengthening markets and amending policies should be done to lessen the dependence of imports. Equipment suppliers must try to stabilize their supply chains by analyzing risk assessments and adopting supply continuity plans. They must try to diversify their supply chain portfolio to respond to changing demands. This will enormously benefit in strengthening the supplier’s chains.