The Ministry of Hygiene intends to establish a central purchasing system and have the China Association of Medical Equipment (CAME) monitor the selection of medical equipment in order to prevent the current waste of medical resources, China Business News reported.   This central purchasing system would purchase any costly medical equipment and materials for non-profit provincial and local hospitals across the country.   CAME has released a report recently on the medical equipment consumption in China. The report showed that many medical resources are not efficiently configured. In 500 hospitals located in 10 provinces and cities, CT and MRI usage does not reach 40 percent; indeed, 17 percent and 27 percent of CT and MRI scans, respectively, are unnecessary.   One of the factors contributing to the vicious cycle is that various hospitals compete to purchase large-scale medical equipments.   “Purchasing a CT or MRI unit normally costs tens to hundreds of thousands of CNY. It is easy to recoup the expense by transferring the cost to the patients,” a staff with a hospital told the paper.   In discussing whether the establishment of a central purchasing system would bring in monopoly of overseas medical equipments, a senior manager of a Shanghai large-scaled medical equipment enterprise, told the paper that it is already obvious that overseas medical equipment manufacturers dominate the market.   “Although scanning fees charged for national and imported medical equipments are clearly regulated, there is still a major difference between the two. Imported equipments can bring the hospitals bigger profit so they remain hospitals’ favourite purchases,” he added.   A chief of a hospital told the paper that imported medical equipments are more advanced and have a greater appeal to patients.   “CT scans lead to additional revenue because the CT scan results would lead to more expensive surgery or treatment fees. If a hospital is not equipped with a CT unit, then it receives less business,” he said.   By 2010, China’s medical equipment market is estimated to be worth more than US$120 million, a 10-fold increase from 2005.