Medical Consumables in Kenya: Full List, Categories and Prices

Consumables are single-use items that are used once on a patient and then discarded: syringes, needles, IV cannulas, gauze, cotton wool, examination gloves, masks, catheters, swabs and test strips. They are distinct from equipment, which is a capital purchase serviced over years, and from reusable instruments, which are sterilised between patients.

The most commonly ordered examples in Kenya are examination gloves, 2ml and 5ml disposable syringes, hypodermic needles, IV cannulas and giving sets, sterile gauze swabs, cotton wool rolls, crepe and gauze bandages, surgical tape, 3-ply face masks, alcohol prep swabs, urine test strips, specimen containers, vacutainer tubes and sharps containers.

Laboratory consumables are the disposable items a lab uses to collect, handle and analyse samples: vacutainer tubes, blood lancets, capillary tubes, specimen and stool containers, microscope slides and cover slips, pipette tips, sample cups, petri dishes, culture media, inoculating loops, filter paper, urine test strips and rapid test kits, plus the gloves, biohazard bags and sharps containers used at the bench.

Equipment is bought once and lasts years: an autoclave, an ECG machine, a dental chair, a microscope. It sits on the asset register and is depreciated. Consumables are bought every month and used up: gloves, syringes, gauze, test strips. They are an operating expense. Over a three-year horizon most Kenyan clinics spend more on consumables than they originally spent on equipment.

By volume, examination gloves and disposable syringes lead every order book, followed by IV cannulas and giving sets, sterile gauze, cotton wool and 3-ply face masks. In laboratories the fastest-moving lines are vacutainer tubes, alcohol swabs, urine test strips and rapid test kits for malaria, HIV and pregnancy.

A new outpatient clinic opening in Kenya should stock, at minimum: nitrile or latex examination gloves, 2ml and 5ml syringes with needles, IV cannulas in 18G to 22G with giving sets, sterile gauze swabs, cotton wool, crepe bandages and adhesive plasters, surgical tape, povidone iodine, alcohol prep swabs, 3-ply masks, a sharps container, biohazard bags, urine test strips and sterile specimen containers. Budget KES 45,000 to KES 120,000 a month once you are seeing 30 to 40 patients a day.

High-value consumables are items with a high cost per unit rather than high volume: sutures, disposable skin staplers, endotracheal tubes, dialysis bloodlines and dialysers, rapid diagnostic and reagent kits, contrast media, and single-use surgical instruments. They usually represent a small share of order lines but a large share of spend, which makes them worth pricing carefully.

Buy from a supplier who imports directly, holds Nairobi stock, and issues certificates of conformity with each consignment. Direct import removes a layer of margin, local stock is what determines whether you get goods this week or next month, and certification is what your SHA empanelment file and KEBS inspection will ask for. Jodroc supplies on all three counts from Tom Mboya Street in Nairobi Central. Request a price list.

One box, which is typically 100 pieces for gloves and syringes. There is no minimum order value. Carton pricing at 10 boxes runs 8 to 12 percent below the box rate and is what most facilities ordering monthly settle on.

Yes. CE marking certificates and ISO 13485 manufacturing certificates ship with each consignment and are available separately on request. They are accepted for SHA empanelment documentation, KEBS inspections and facility regulatory submissions. Batch certification and lot traceability records are available if you request them at the time of order.

Yes. Dialysers, bloodlines, fistula needles, concentrates and connectors are supplied to order rather than held in general stock, because units run to specific machine compatibilities. Send us your machine make and model with your monthly session volume and we will quote against it.

Yes. Jodroc dispatches to all major towns by courier, including Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Eldoret, Nyeri, Meru, Thika, Kisii and Embu, typically within one to three working days of dispatch. Freight depends on weight and destination and is quoted separately on each order. We also supply across the border into Tanzania.