All good points ... although some may question where you get the "10 years" from (hospital - or Ministry - policy?).
I believe that the amount of effort needed to remedy the situation at hand really depends upon the type of equipment being alluded to. As yet, the original poster does not mention this.
That is, are we talking about a quantity of relatively low-cost items of the same type, or a "one-off" item of high-cost capital equipment?
Or even, a single item that has been sneaked into the hospital (typically via the back corridors of the Operating Theatres by someone senior who considers themselves unchallengeable).
By the way (and slightly off topic), as you have mentioned spare parts acquisition ... despite all the recent (to my mind ill-judged) trends towards "just in time" and "lean" etc. practices, I still like the idea of purchasing an initial stock of appropriate parts (that can usually be easily forecast by any biomeds worth their salt), especially when many items of the same type are being purchased. At the end of equipment life, any parts remaining can be disposed of in the usual way (preferably sold, or donated) together with the equipment items themselves.
