Dr. Arthur Gomes (Fictional Name) was a famous pediatric surgeon in the city. He joined Fraternity Hospital (Fictional Name) as a consultant. He needed a new electro-cautery machine suitable for the advanced operation he would be doing in small children and babies, as the old electro-cautery machine present in the hospital was outdated.
For Non-medicos: Pediatric Surgeon is a surgeon who specializes in surgery on the children and including infants and babies. An electro-cautery machine is a machine that seals or cauterized the bleeding vessels during surgery by means of electric current, thus minimizing blood loss during surgery.
Dr. Arthur conveyed his need to the management of the Fraternity Hospital which included some doctors well versed in the way of business. They asked Dr. Arthur to shortlist some cautery machines which will be suitable for his work, but leave the price finalization to them.
Accordingly, Dr. Arthur shortlisted few machines and gave the list to the management team. The price of the best machine according to Dr. Arthur was quoted as Rs. 1,20,000 for a single machine.
The hospital management asked the dealing firm for negotiations and negotiated a discount of around 10 – 15% on the starting price. Then they decided to upgrade/buy a new cautery machine for the second Operation Theatre also and got an additional discount as now they were buying 2 machines. They bargained further and finally bought 3 machines for a total of Rs. 1,80,000, or at Rs. 60,000 each, i.e. at 50% discount to the initial price.
When Dr. Arthur learned this, he was shocked as he could never have imagined that a 50% discount was possible in this machine and would have settled just for the initial 10-15% discount offered by the company.
Tip: Heavy discount is possible in everything, including such sophisticated and technical things as medical equipment.
Tip: Increasing the quantity is a common technique used to get an increased discount. First, they bargained for one machine, got a discounted rate, then showed interest in buying a second machine getting a further discount and finally introduced the third machine in the negotiation getting the final discount.
Tip: Some persons are expert bargainer/negotiator. Better leave the price finalization to these experts.
(Based on allegedly true incident)
— ND
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DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. The use of the information herein is at your one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Practice should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost.
DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use the information herein is at your one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Education should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost and according to MCI and other Board’s norms. 
