A comparison of clinical engineering departments in Sweden and the United Kingdom

This paper reports on the results of a study carried out involving 23 clinical engineering departments in Sweden, and 132 departments in the United Kingdom. An investigation was made into the relationships between the quantity and replacement value of the equipment managed by clinical engineering departments, the resources they had available for this work, and the relative size of hospitals. Several factors showed close affinity between the two countries, such as the number of items supported; number of supervisors, engineers and clerical staff; as well as the relative budgets for salaries and overall departmental costs. Conversely the Swedish respondents were managing equipment with a higher replacement value, and with more biomedical engineering technicians.