1. What happens to your capital
Buying endoscopy equipment outright means paying for the full tower — monitor, camera, light source, insufflator, electrosurgical unit and scopes — before you’ve performed a single case. For a new practice, that money often has better uses: staff, OT fit-out, marketing and a cash buffer for the first months.
Leasing spreads the cost into fixed monthly payments over the lease term. You start operating with the right equipment and pay for it as the OT generates work. Lease payments may also be treated as a business expense — check the tax position with your CA.
2. Who looks after uptime
When you buy, equipment care is your responsibility. When a scope fails, you find a repair provider, wait for an estimate and, often, postpone cases until it returns.
A lease with a service bundle changes that. With SCAN24, warranty, repairs at our in-house repair centre and a standby scope can be part of the monthly payment — so a fault doesn’t automatically mean a cancelled list. See the Uptime Promise.
3. How long the technology stays current
Imaging moves quickly: many OTs that bought HD systems a few years ago now want 4K. When you own equipment, upgrading means another large purchase. An Upgrade Lease builds the choice in — at the end of the term you can return, renew or move to newer equipment.
4. Questions to ask any supplier
- What exactly is included in the monthly payment — and what isn’t?
- Who repairs the equipment, and where?
- What happens to my scheduled cases while a scope is being repaired?
- Will the scopes work with my existing camera system?
- What are my choices at the end of the term?
- Which documents do you need, and when?
When buying still makes sense
If you have a capital budget set aside, an in-house biomedical team and stable equipment needs, buying can work well — ideally with an annual maintenance contract for preventive care. SCAN24 offers outright purchase on quote too.
See the options side by side on Lease vs Buy, or get lease options for your OT within 6 working hours.