Many thanks Geoff,
its a common issue still - I am also working with Project Care from the US - they send medical equipment to Africa and have a keen interest in this as they encounter exactly the same issue there.
I do have a relationship with WHO and actually use their guide to donated equipment as a basis for a lot of advice to donors - I should perhaps clarify that I have been here for two and a half years and proposed this at a meeting of Heath Secretarys in Fiji in June 2010 - - it has taken a year and a bit for the aid agencys to analyse their existing programmes and consider it as a,hopefully,better alternative - I have been working on it for all of that time but now it has been accepted it has been given high priority and is moving very quickly so we can have it running early 2012.
As for money - sadly there are a lot of fly by nighters who pray on small island nations lack of expertise and sell them poor quality equipment at huge markups - often 400-500% - I have spent a great deal of time getting procurement procedures into place and obviously a spin off of having knowlegable locals trained in medical equipment will be to assess and avoid equipment offers for themselves.
