Delivery tables specified and pooled across labour rooms

What you are actually buying

A labour room delivery table is a frame, a sectional mattress and a set of accessories, and the accessories are where quotes separate. Height adjustment may be hydraulic or electric; the leg section may lift away or fold under; Trendelenburg, backrest articulation and lithotomy positioning vary; and leg holders, drainage tray, IV pole and mattress are sometimes inside the price and sometimes beside it. Frames come in stainless steel or coated mild steel, which is not a cosmetic distinction in a room cleaned several times a day. The usual error is buying on frame price alone. What fails in service is the mattress seam, the sealing of the section joints and the drainage arrangement, under repeated disinfection rather than under load.

Why delivery table suits collective purchasing

This pools cleanly. The specification is short and stable, clinical opinion about it is limited, there is no software and little service content, and manufacture is largely domestic, so several suppliers can be qualified on documents and a sample rather than a long evaluation. Every maternity unit needs at least one table and most need several, so a modest number of institutions produces a quantity worth quoting against. Because the machine content is low, the pooled contract should carry accessories, mattresses, freight and installation together — otherwise those are quoted afterwards, to each institution separately, at its own bargaining strength.

How a pool for this runs

Also pooled under Obstetrics, gynaecology & neonatal