Sri Lanka’s healthcare system depends on high-performing medical technology, but faces constant pressure from service delays, limited local repair depth, supply-chain disruption, and foreign-exchange constraints. These are risks that directly affect patient outcomes. Biomed International’s answer is a long-term, end-to-end service model that builds local capability to match global standards.
To explore how this approach works in practice, Echelon sat down with Rohantha De Fonseka, Senior Director at Biomed International, Chehan Samarasinghe, Managing Director, Namal Dodangollegama, Director & Chief Executive, and Sanath Wijesinghe, Group Director of Finance.
Biomed International has operated in Sri Lanka for over 36 years with stable leadership and internally grown senior engineering heads. How has this continuity shaped decision-making and reduced reliance on individual specialists or short-term leadership fixes?
Biomed International’s leadership model is built on continuity. For 36+ years, senior leaders and engineering heads have grown internally, making decisions grounded in institutional memory. Instead of depending on a few specialists, we embedded accountability in teams, clarified roles, and standardised workflows across operations and engineering, reducing single-point risk.
Stability allows the governance and technical processes mature through the challenges and crises over the years. During the conflict, oxygen supplies to Jaffna were repeatedly disrupted. Biomed International relied on the same long-tenured engineering leadership who remained accountable for keeping systems operational.
With support from Capital Maharaja, an oxygen concentrator was installed at the Jaffna Hospital. When calcium-heavy water damaged the cooling system, the team adapted the setup to use rainwater tanks. The adapted setup was maintained and refined by the same teams over time, keeping the system operational for 10–12 years despite severe constraints.
Uninterrupted oxygen delivery during these periods supported patient survival in the region, including soldiers treated at the hospital. Repeated crisis exposure strengthened institutional judgement, allowing responses to be standardised and sustained. Reliability emerged as an organisational capability, built through continuity and learning, that needs to be attributed to the competence of the entire team.
Biomed International represents global medical technology brands and prioritises overseas principal-led training. How has this exposure shaped your technical standards and service culture?
Biomed International treats overseas training as the benchmark for how care should be delivered, not a credential. Over decades, engineers and clinicians have trained directly with principals such as Pentax Medical, Beckman Coulter (UK), and Aesculap, where precision, documentation, and accountability are non-negotiable. Teams have also trained in medical gas systems to HTM 2022 standards through Eastwood Park, UK.
Repeated exposure to these environments sets a clear benchmark for what basic standards need to be internally emphasised. That discipline shapes behaviour under pressure, guiding decisions during breakdowns and crises. Over time, hospitals experienced this consistency as reliability, which is how trust was earned.
Biomed International positions “Commitment to Life” as both purpose and principle. How is this translated into operational priorities rather than remaining a values statement?
“Commitment to Life” is the lens Biomed International uses to make difficult decisions. When patient care must continue, the company prioritises restoring and sustaining critical equipment during disasters rather than treating recovery as optional charity.
This same responsibility explains why Biomed International invests in building and certifying local service capability, even when it requires higher upfront cost.
Environmental initiatives such as beach clean-ups and tree planting, alongside community actions including free medical clinics and shelter for underprivileged groups, follow this same logic. These are not parallel initiatives as they reflect a single decision framework: choosing actions that protect life and sustain care, especially when conditions are constrained.
Environmental initiatives are often seen as symbolic. How does Biomed International measure whether efforts like beach clean-ups and tree planting meaningfully align with its core healthcare mission?
Biomed International evaluates environmental initiatives by participation, outcomes, and mission relevance, not symbolism. At the Wellawatte Beach clean-up on 18 October 2025, over 100 employees and managers took part, collecting and responsibly disposing of around 50 bags of segregated waste.
On 22 November 2025, in Yudaganawa, Buttala, 120 employees and managers planted 200 trees, including mango, jack, tamarind, mee, goraka, and Ceylon breadfruit.
These efforts sit under our “Commitment to Life” purpose, linking community and environmental responsibility to protecting life. They also reflect our team-driven culture: it’s a collective commitment, not an individual one.
How does Biomed International’s “Commitment to Life” guide decisions with clear financial trade-offs, such as investing in local service capability or absorbing disaster recovery costs like the Chilaw Hospital flood response?
“Commitment to Life” guides decisions even when margins suffer. We built audited, end-to-end local endoscopy repair instead of relying on overseas servicing. The same mindset drove our Cyclone Ditwah response at District General Hospital Chilaw: two submerged Pentax systems were inspected, parts recovered, rebuilt, and tested locally (3–15 Dec 2025). The Rs35 million recovery was delivered free, restoring patient care.
It’s an end-to-end culture, top to bottom, rooted in integrity, responsibility, and ESG. We proved it in wartime oxygen support, invested and continue to invest in training and faster service, introduced advanced technologies, and set medical-gas standards through factory training across our hospitals.
Beyond faster repairs, how does the Pentax Medical–certified local service centre address past gaps and reshape healthcare economics in Sri Lanka, especially foreign exchange use, system downtime, and regional SAARC service capability?
Launched on 7 November 2025, the Pentax Medical–certified service centre closes long-standing gaps by moving Biomed International from partial local repairs (about 30% in 2007; 70–80% by 2012) to full end-to-end repair under global audit standards. It eliminates overseas shipping, reducing downtime and foreign-exchange outflow. With certified environmental controls, tooling, documentation, and annual audits, hospitals get faster diagnostics, repairs, and release locally.
With audited processes and four trained specialists, the certified service centre now handles complex board, component, and CCD repairs, including system salvage that previously required overseas intervention. This capability keeps high-value repair work within Sri Lanka, reducing foreign currency outflows associated with sending equipment abroad.
As one of only two Pentax Medical–certified service centres in the SAARC region, the facility can also support neighbouring markets, anchoring technical expertise locally while retaining economic value within the country.